Effectiveness of problem solving therapy in reducing suicide risk in patients who attempted suicide

Suicide is an important issue that should be emphasized for all age groups. Studies show that a significant number of individuals who attempt suicide have made a call for help with this attempt. Studies show that problem-solving skills are important in the matter of suicide. There are different studies and interventions in the literature to understand and prevent suicide, Problem Solving Therapy is one of the intervention techniques used in this field. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of problem-solving therapy in individuals who have attempted suicide. The study was conducted on different individuals in both individual and group therapy formats. In this context, the effectiveness study of both individual and group therapy forms of Problem Solving Therapy for the treatment of suicide was conducted. In this study, random experimental model with pretest-posttest control group, which is one of the types of experimental design, was used. In the experimental group are two groups, those taking individual therapy format and those taking group therapy format; in the control group, there is one waiting list group. There are 3 groups in total. Before the intervention started, 50 people signed the Informed Consent Form, but the intervention was terminated with a total of 39 participants. The process was completed with 13 participants in each group (individual, group and waiting list). The follow-up study was conducted 3 months after the end of the intervention. Participants received a Demographic Information Form prepared by the researcher, Suicide Probability Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Revised Social Problem Solving Inventory-Short Form and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20.0 (SPSS). The difference between groups in pre-measurements were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA); the change of research variables depending on time and intervention was examined with the repeated measure Analysis of Variance (Repeated Measure ANOVA). For this purpose, 5 different Repeated Measures ANOVA tests were performed for pretest-posttest comparisons of the experimental and control groups. Finally, independent t-test analysis were conducted to see in which groups the common effect was significant. The findings showed that, the suicide probability and depression levels of the participants in the experimental group (for both individual therapy and group therapy format) decreased significantly after the intervention, and their cognitive flexibility scores also increased significantly, but there was no difference in the waiting list. Also, considering the level of Social Problem Solving and its dimensions after the intervention, it was seen that the scores of the group receiving individual therapy increased significantly compared to the waiting list. In addition, it was observed that the individual and group formats from the experiment group preserved the gains from the intervention in the follow-up measurement 3 months later. Finally, the findings were discussed in the light of the literature, the limitations and clinical implications of the study were mentioned, and recommendations for future research were made.