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The relationship between therapeutic alliance and patient's suicidal thoughts, self-harming behaviours and suicide attempts: A systematic review.
- Source :
-
Journal of Affective Disorders . Dec2017, Vol. 223, p165-174. 10p. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>Suicidality is a common concern for people with mental health problems. The interpersonal nature of suicidality suggests that therapeutic alliance may be important when working clinically with suicidal patients. This paper is a systematic review of studies investigating the association between alliance and treatment outcome relating to suicidal ideation and behaviours.<bold>Methods: </bold>Systematic searches of PsychINFO, MEDLINE, AMED, EMBASE, Web of Science and CINAHL were completed using words that captured the concepts of alliance and suicidality. Eligible studies: involved participants aged 18-years-old or over; used a validated measure of therapeutic alliance; and reported associations between alliance and suicidality. Abstracts, qualitative studies and articles not written in English were excluded.<bold>Results: </bold>Twelve studies were included. Findings indicated that alliance is associated with suicidality. Alliance was related to suicidality in eleven of the papers. Self-harming behaviours had the strongest association with patient-rated alliance. Suicide attempts had the weakest association, possibly due to the infrequency of suicide attempts in the studies reviewed.<bold>Limitations: </bold>The twelve studies were heterogeneous in terms of the measure of alliance used, method of assessing suicidality, clinical setting and professional-type. This variability limited the degree to which findings could be synthesised.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Therapists, care-coordinators and mental health teams should recognise the importance of building a strong therapeutic alliance with suicidal patients. Researchers should use consistent methods of measuring alliance and assessing suicidality in future studies. Clinicians and researchers should note that suicidal thoughts, self-harm and suicide attempts may be related to alliance in different ways and therefore should be assessed as separate constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01650327
- Volume :
- 223
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 124857127
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.07.040