Recruiting

Observational Study

Sponsor:

VA Office of Research and Development

Code:

NCT05884476

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation

Suicide, Attempted

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Treatment-as-usual

Re-Evaluating Suicidal Thoughts

Study Details

Brief summary:

Suicide prevention is a top priority for VA as all continue to seek new and inventive ways to reduce suicide rates among Veterans. Many experts agree that suicide prevention efforts could be improved by making suicide-specific interventions easier to access. The current project aims to move toward that goal by testing a web-based suicide prevention intervention using an experimental design. The roughly 40-minute intervention aims to teach Veterans coping skills that are designed to ease the emotional distress that often comes with thoughts of suicide. The project will evaluate whether Veterans who receive this intervention report more improvement in suicidal thoughts and behaviors than Veterans who receive a standard course of health care visits. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors will be measured over the course of one month. The investigators hypothesize that Veterans who receive the intervention will report lower suicidal thoughts and behaviors than those who receive the standard course of health care.

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation

Suicide, Attempted

Study ID

NCT05884476

Start date

Jan 8, 2024

Status verified date

Dec, 2025

Completion date

Jun 30, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jun 30, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Veteran
  • 18 years or older
  • Past two-week suicidal ideation as indicated by positive reply to C-SSRS questions ("Have you had any actual thoughts of killing yourself," or, "Have you been thinking about how you might do this?")

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Active psychosis
  • Unmedicated bipolar disorder
  • Instances in which a substance use disorder would indicate inpatient detoxification prior to engaging in other outpatient mental health interventions

Study Design

Enrollment

180 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: REST + TAU

Veterans in this condition will complete the REST intervention and be expected to remain engaged in their standard course of health care as described in the TAU condition.

other: TAU

Veterans in this condition will be expected to engage in their standard course of heath care.

Interventions

Treatment-as-usual

Veterans in the TAU-only control condition will remain engaged in their normal standard of mental health care throughout their participation in this study. Veterans in the TAU condition will have access to and receive referrals for any of the following services normally afforded to patients at this VA hospital: VA Office of Connected Care web-based training programs and mobile mental health applications; primary care appointments; PCMHI consultation; outpatient mental health individual and group therapies; psychiatry appointments; inpatient hospitalization in the event of a suicidal crisis during study participation; and post-discharge mental health follow-up appointments following inpatient hospitalization for medical or mental health reasons.

Re-Evaluating Suicidal Thoughts

REST is a brief, computerized intervention designed to mitigate psychological inflexibility associated with the experience of suicidal ideation. Most individuals complete the intervention in under one hour. REST provides psychoeducation to correct common misconceptions about suicidal ideation and help Veterans de-catastrophize the occurrence and meaning of these thoughts. This includes information about the prevalence of suicidal ideation among Veterans, a conceptualization of suicidal ideation as a response to stress, normalizing emotional reactions to suicidal ideation, and framing suicidal ideation as "thoughts and conjectures" as opposed to "truth and reality." These components were chosen to directly address emotional distress related to suicidal thoughts, which is central to the construct of psychological inflexibility. Veterans randomized to receive REST will have access to and be encouraged to utilize any and all of these options described in the TAU-only condition.

Primary outcome measure

  • Suicidal ideation severity change [ Time Frame: Baseline and one month ]
  • Psychological inflexibility of suicidal ideation change [ Time Frame: Baseline and two weeks ]
  • Suicidal behaviors change [ Time Frame: Baseline and one month ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Joseph W Boffa, PhD

(504) 507-2000joseph.boffa@va.gov

Locations

Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, New Orleans, LA

Recruiting

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70119

Contacts

Joseph W Boffa, PhD

(504) 507-2000joseph.boffa@va.gov

Jessica L Chambliss, MS

(504) 507-2000jessica.chambliss@va.gov

Principal Investigator:

Joseph W Boffa, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Last update posted

Dec 18, 2025

Last verified

Dec, 2025

Keywords

  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Suicide, Attempted

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by VA Office of Research and Development on 2025-12-18.