Grand Rapids Herald Review reports…

Cognitive behavior therapy reduces suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts even if delivered for a short time via telehealth, according to results published Nov. 12 in the journal JAMA Network Open. …

For the study, researchers randomly assigned 96 U.S. adults to randomly receive via telehealth either:

• Suicide-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, which taught them how to manage and change distressing emotions and negative thinking
• Present-centered therapy, which helps participants respond to stresses in their life

Present-centered therapy has been proven an effective way to reduce depression and suicidal thoughts, researchers noted.

But in this study, cognitive behavioral therapy outperformed present-centered therapy in reducing suicide attempts among telehealth patients, researchers found.