Digital Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults Experiencing Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors

To summarize literature on digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) among adolescents and young adults. This includes studies evaluating DMHI efficacy in reducing SITBs, exploring the quality of these interventions, and describing the features, functionality, and psychological strategies of these interventions.

Evidence for the efficacy of DMHIs for SITBs is limited but growing. The strongest support is for DMHIs with a cognitive-behavioral approach, those that target suicidality specifically, and those that target adults rather than adolescents. DMHIs vary in format and level of human support. Human support is commonly in the form of a clinician-peer support is infrequent. DMHIs facilitate safety planning, connect users with crisis support, teach users coping strategies, or encourage self-assessment. CBT-based approaches are the most frequent, but others include mindfulness and problem solving. While no DMHI for SITBs incorporate all evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention, many include several, with the most common being elements of safety planning.

DMHIs have promise to address high rates of SITBs among young people. We summarize the existing literature and offer suggestions for future research to improve trial methodology, optimize design of DMHIs, and translate DMHIs into practice.