Open Clinical Trials for Veterans With Suicidal Ideation

Using Telehealth to Improve Outcomes in Veterans at Risk for Suicide

The investigators will randomize 120 veterans in this 3-site trial over 16 months. Eligible veterans will include those to be discharged for a hospitalization for suicidal ideation. Baseline data collection and randomization will occur at discharge. The 3-month intervention will have study assessments at 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks postdischarge. The study’s primary outcome measure is suicidal ideation (measured with the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS) and secondarily with the Columbia Scale for Suicidality (C-SSRS).

ID: NCT03724370
Sponsor: VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System
Contact: Gretchen Haas, PhD, gretchen.haas@va.gov; Crystal Spotts, MEd, crystal.spotts@va.gov
Locations: James J. Peters Medical Center, Bronx, New York; VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan Campus; VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pennsylvania

Group (“Project Life Force”) vs. Individual Suicide Safety Planning RCT

The management of suicide risk is a pressing national public health issue especially among veterans. This grant consists of 2 arms: the novel treatment and treatment-as-usual. “Project Life Force” (PLF), a novel suicide safety planning group intervention has been developed to provide a mechanism to develop and enhance the Suicide Safety Plan (SSP) over time. PLF, a 10-session, group intervention, combines cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)/dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skill-based, and psychoeducational approaches, to maximize suicide safety planning development and implementation. Veterans revise their plans over several weeks while learning coping, emotion regulation, and interpersonal skills to incorporate into their safety plans.

ID: NCT03653637
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Contact: Sarah R Sullivan, sarah.sullivan@va.gov
Locations: James J. Peters Medical Center, Bronx, New York; Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

SAFER: A Brief Intervention Involving Family Members in Suicide Safety Planning (SAFER)

The management of suicide risk is a pressing national public health issue especially among veterans, and there exist no guidelines of how best to involve family members in this effort. This proposal will integrate family and couples communication skills training with suicide safety planning. The goal is for the sharing of veteran suicide safety plans with family members and the construction of a parallel family member safety plan, in efforts to mobilize and support family involvement.

ID: NCT03034863
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Contact: Marianne Goodman, MD, marianne.goodman@va.gov
Contact: Sarah R Sullivan, sarah.sullivan@va.gov
Location: James J. Peters Medical Center, Bronx, New York

Suicide and Trauma Reduction Initiative Among Veterans (STRIVE)

The present study is a pragmatic clinical trial that will examine the effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in reducing PTSD symptom severity, depression symptoms, and suicidal thoughts among military personnel and veterans with PTSD when delivered in 3 different formats: (1) 12 sessions delivered once per week in an office/clinic setting; (2) 12 sessions delivered once per day in an office/clinic setting; and (3) 12 sessions delivered once per day in a recreational setting.

ID: NCT03933059
Sponsor: University of Utah
Contact: Craig Bryan, PhD, ABPP, and Feea Leifker, PhD, MPH, ncvs@utah.edu
Locations: University of Utah, Salt Lake City

CAMS-G Group Therapy for Suicidal Veterans

The primary aim of this pilot study is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of CAMS-G. Our aim is to determine if CAMS-G is an effective treatment and whether it has the potential to be tested in a large-scale setting.

ID: NCT03682406
Sponsor: Louisville VA Medical Center
Contact: Lora Johnson, PhD, lora.johnson2@va.gov; Stephen O’Connor, PhD, stephen.oconnor@louisville.edu
Location: Robley Rex VA Medical Center, Louisville, Kentucky

RCT of Brief CBT-I in Primary Care Veterans With Suicidal Thoughts

There is a strong association between insomnia and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Insomnia also frequently co-occurs with other common conditions associated with suicide such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. This project focuses on improving sleep as a novel suicide prevention strategy that can be delivered to a broad range of veterans. The study will examine how cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, an efficacious treatment for insomnia, may reduce suicidal thoughts in veterans who also suffer from co-occurring conditions when delivered by integrated primary care clinicians.

ID: NCT03603717
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Contact: Wilfred Pigeon, PhD, wilfred.pigeon2@va.gov; Jennifer Funderburk, PhD, jennifer.funderburk@va.gov
Locations: VA Western New York Healthcare System, Buffalo; Canandaigua VA Medical Center, New York; Syracuse VA Medical Center, New York

Intranasal Ketamine for Suicidal Ideation in Veterans

To address the significant need for effective treatment of suicidal ideation in veterans, this trial is designed as an open label pilot study of intranasal ketamine in 15 people.

ID: NCT03788694
Sponsor: Bronx Veterans Medical Research Foundation, Inc
Contact: Rachel Harris, MA, rachel.harris6@va.gov; Marianne Goodman, MD, marianne.goodman@va.gov
Location: James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, New York

Couples Intervention to Improve Mental Health

Over the last decade, suicide rates have risen within the military and have remained high. Converging evidence suggests that suicide prevention efforts may be enhanced by explicitly including family members in treatment. The study’s objectives are to test the effect of the CCRP, a targeted single session couples intervention on suicide ideation among military service members and veterans, and to understand how the use of the CCRP impacts suicide risk during the 6 months immediately postdischarge from a psychiatric inpatient unit.

ID: NCT04084756
Sponsor: Wesleyan University
Contact: Alexis May, PhD, amay01@wesleyan.edu
Location: Salt Lake Behavioral Health, Utah

Clinical and Imaging Trial of Uridine for Veterans With Suicidal Ideation

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the investigational drug uridine as a treatment for suicidal ideation in veterans. The investigators hypothesize that the administration of a naturally occurring dietary supplement, uridine, will rapidly reduce suicidal ideation in veterans. The purpose of this study is to determine whether 4 weeks of uridine supplementation is an effective treatment for suicidal ideation in veterans, when compared to a group taking a placebo.

ID: NCT03265964
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Contact: Douglas G Kondo, MD, douglas.kondo@va.gov; Danielle Boxer, MS, danielle.boxer@utah.edu
Location: VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Utah

Multisite RCT of STEP-Home: A Transdiagnostic Skill-based Community Reintegration Workshop (by invitation)

In this proposal, the investigators extend their previous SPiRE feasibility and preliminary effectiveness study to examine STEP-Home efficacy in a RCT design. This novel therapy will target the specific needs of a broad range of underserved post-9/11 veterans. It is designed to foster reintegration by facilitating meaningful improvement in the functional skills most central to community participation: emotional regulation (ER), problem solving (PS), and attention functioning (AT). The skills trained in the STEP-Home workshop are novel in their collective use and have not been systematically applied to a veteran population prior to the investigators’ SPiRE study. STEP-Home will equip veterans with skills to improve daily function, reduce anger and irritability, and assist reintegration to civilian life through return to work, family, and community, while simultaneously providing psychoeducation to promote future engagement in VA care.

ID: NCT03868930
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Locations: VA Boston Healthcare System, Jamaica Plain Campus, Massachusetts; Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas

The AIM Study: Investigating Whether Actigraphy and Ideation Measures Can Promote Patient Safety

This is a research project looking at whether measuring movements or responses to certain questions can help predict suicidal thoughts or actions. This project has 2 parts: The first part will occur while the participant is receiving hospitalized at the Bedford VA Hospital. It involves wearing a watch-like device on his/her wrist and answering questions or doing tasks to measure mood and other mental health symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. In the second phase, the investigators will call the participant around 12 months after s/he has left the hospital. The investigators will discuss how s/he is doing and if s/he has had suicidal thoughts or made suicidal acts.

ID: NCT03080168
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Contact: Eric G Smith, MD PhD MPH, eric.smith5@va.gov
Location: Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, Massachusetts