Health Technology Assessment of the Psychotherapy Effect on Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm: A Rapid Review of Secondary Studies

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, acute depression disorders are the second largest health problem in the world which can cause disability and imposes huge costs on individuals and societies. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of using psychotherapy in patients with depression for prevention of suicide and self harm commitment. Methods: Cochrane library (Issue 10, 2012) and CRD (Centre for Review and Dissemination) were searched using Mesh. Studies that compared psychotherapy with different alternative methods such as antidepressant drugs and used outcomes such as self-harm or suicide rates were included. Results: Eighteen articles were included in this review. Most of them showed that using psychotherapy as only suicide preventive method cannot be sufficiently effective, so that in the one of the included meta-analysis was shown that the effect of psychotherapy on suicide imagination and the risk of suicide were small. In terms of cost-effectiveness, it seems that MACT (Manual-assisted cognitive behavior therapy) is a cost-effective method in prevention of self-harm. Conclusion: Generally, it seems that using combination of therapeutic methods will increase the effectiveness of suicide and self-harm prevention methods.