Alexithymia Intervention for Suicide

Suicide rates among Veterans with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) are intractably high, representing a serious public health concern and a critical target for interventions. Yet, at present available treatments offer modest benefits. Thus, there remains an urgent need to identify novel approaches to address suicide risk in this population. Previous reports have linked suicide risk with poor social functioning. Emerging evidence from basic affective neuroscience research has indicated that effective social functioning is contingent on intact emotion awareness. Consistent with these findings, individuals with SMI at risk of suicide display social functioning difficulties along with poor emotion awareness (i.e., alexithymia). Employing a proof-of-concept design, the aim of the present study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel, blended psychoeducation and digital mHealth (mobile health) intervention with smartphones designed to target alexithymia and poor social functioning to reduce suicide risk in Veterans with SMI.

Inclusion Criteria:a DSM-V diagnosis of PTSDbipolar disorderMDDschizophreniaat risk of suicide(Columbia Suicide Severity Rating ScaleC-SSRS 3 or a suicide attempt in the past year)limited emotion awareness (Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TAS-20 52)can understand all the study's risks and benefitsExclusion Criteria:have medical/neurological conditions that could interfere with study participationenrolled in another treatment studyunable/unwilling to provide a verifiable contact for emergency purposes