A pilot study of mobile telephone message interventions with suicide attempters in China

In China, where follow-up with hospitalized attempters is generally lacking, there is a great need for inexpensive and effective means of maintaining contact and decreasing recidivism.

Our objective was to test whether mobile telephone message contacts after discharge would be feasible and acceptable to suicide attempters in China.

Fifteen participants were recruited from suicide attempters seen in the Emergency Department in Wuhan, China, to participate in a pilot study to receive mobile telephone messages after discharge. All participants have access to a mobile telephone, and there is no charge for the user to receive text messages.

Most participants (12) considered the text message contacts an acceptable and useful form of help and would like to continue to receive them for a longer period of time.

This suggests that, as a low-cost and quick method of intervention in areas where more intensive follow-up is not practical or available, telephone messages contacts are accessible, feasible, and acceptable to suicide attempters. We hope that this will inspire future research on regular and long-term message interventions to prevent recidivism in suicide attempters.