Suicide prevention among perinatal psychiatric inpatients: A randomized clinical trial
2025 Award: $59,999
Suicide is a leading cause of postpartum maternal deaths, yet no suicide prevention programs exist that are designed specifically for pregnant and postpartum women. This is a huge gap in maternal mental healthcare that we will address with this project. Thanks to the Foundation of Hope, we will be able to design and test the first ever perinatal-specific suicide prevention program for women who are experiencing high levels of psychological distress and suicide risk.
Need/Problem: Suicide is a leading cause of postpartum maternal deaths in the United States, yet no perinatal suicide prevention programs exist. Some interventions indirectly reduce perinatal suicide risk by treating other mental health conditions, like postpartum depression, but these interventions are not always feasible for higher-risk patients who need more rapid, targeted treatment.
Grant Summary:We will adapt and test Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) as a potential suicide intervention perinatal psychiatric inpatients.
Goals & Projected Outcomes: During the 3-year project period, we hope to develop a perinatal-specific suicide prevention program that is feasible to implement, acceptable among perinatal patients, and reduces suicide risk up to 3 months following psychiatric hospitalization. In the long term, this project will yield a research-backed treatment protocol for perinatal suicide prevention and support future grants examining scalability, treatment mechanisms, and offspring mental health.
Parisa R. Kaliush, Ph.D.
Grant Details: Perinatal patients who are admitted to UNC’s psychiatric inpatient unit with current or recent suicidality will be randomly assigned to receive treatment-as-usual (TAU) or Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT). BCBT will comprise four individual therapy sessions targeting patients’ suicide thoughts, risk and protective factors, and how to prevent suicide crises following hospitalization. After discharge, TAU and BCBT patients will be monitored for 3 months with daily surveys and nightly sleep tracking to determine if there are significant group differences in mental health and suicide risk.
