Brief Alcohol Intervention and mHealth Booster for Suicidal Adolescents
Condition: Alcohol Drinking; Suicide, Attempted; Adolescent Behavior
MeSH terms: Suicide; Alcohol Drinking; Suicide, Attempted
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The primary goal of this study is to test the acceptability and feasibility of iASIST
      (integrated Alcohol and Suicide Intervention for Suicidal Teens), a novel adjunctive
      intervention for alcohol use and alcohol-related suicidal thoughts and behaviors for suicidal
      adolescent inpatients.

      The investigators will first conduct an open trial with 10 adolescents and their parents to
      test iASIST and make subsequent changes to the booster. Next, the investigators will conduct
      a randomized trial with 50 adolescents and their parents to test the feasibility and
      acceptability of iASIST as well as associations with alcohol- and suicide-related outcomes at
      3 months post-discharge, relative to participants who receive an attention-matched comparison
      condition focused on the role of a healthy lifestyle in mental health that includes a
      post-discharge mHealth control targeting the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.
    

Detailed description: 
      The primary goal of this study is to test the acceptability and feasibility of iASIST
      (integrated Alcohol and Suicide Intervention for Suicidal Teens), a novel adjunctive
      intervention for alcohol use and alcohol-related suicidal thoughts and behaviors for suicidal
      adolescent inpatients.

      The intervention in this study, iASIST (integrated Alcohol and Suicide Intervention for
      Suicidal Teens), involves three components: 1) an individual intervention with the adolescent
      in which motivational enhancement techniques are used to explore alcohol use as a risk factor
      for continued suicide-related thoughts and behaviors in order to build the adolescent's
      motivation to reduce or stop their alcohol use and to create a complementary change plan, 2)
      a subsequent family intervention in which the interventionist facilitates a discussion
      between the adolescent and parent about the change plan using motivational enhancement
      techniques to align the parent with the adolescent to strengthen the adolescent's
      self-efficacy and commitment to the change plan as well as the parent's ability to support
      the adolescent in their plan to reduce or stop drinking, and 3) a post-discharge mHealth
      booster to adolescents focused on strengthening their commitment to the change plan, and to
      parents focused on their commitment, confidence, and ability related to supporting the
      adolescent in reducing or stopping drinking. The investigators will first conduct an open
      trial with 10 adolescents and their parents to test iASIST and make subsequent changes to the
      booster. Next, the investigators will conduct a randomized trial with 50 adolescents and
      their parents to test the feasibility and acceptability of iASIST as well as associations
      with alcohol- and suicide-related outcomes at 3 months post-discharge, relative to
      participants who receive an attention-matched comparison condition focused on the role of a
      healthy lifestyle in mental health that includes a post-discharge mHealth control targeting
      the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.

      The investigators anticipate that adolescents who receive iASIST, relative to the comparison
      condition, will have increased negative alcohol expectancies, alcohol situational confidence,
      mental health and/or substance abuse service use, parental monitoring, parent-child
      communication about alcohol, and decreased frequency of alcohol use, positive alcohol
      expectancies, suicide ideation, plans, and attempts at 3 month follow-up. Although the
      investigators do not expect statistically significant differences due to the small sample
      size, they will calculate confidence intervals around the effect sizes. Data will be
      informative for designing a fully powered clinical trial.
    

Intervention name(s): iASIST
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Integrated Alcohol and Suicide Intervention for Suicidal Teens
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: alcohol; suicide; adolescents