[Methods to improve suicidal adolescents' compliance to care after emergency discharge: A literature review].

OBJECTIVES

Suicidal adolescents admitted in an Emergency Department (ED) present a high risk of suicidal reattempts. Poor observance of follow-up in this particular group imped the efficacity of the treatment. We propose to summarize the international literature on ED interventions promoting suicidal adolescents' adherence to care.

METHOD

We carried out a comprehensive review of papers listed in PubMed, PsycInfo, and CINHAL databases using keywords about adolescence, suicide, and ED. We also manually consulted the main journals specialized in suicidology (Crisis and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior) and adolescence (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Adolescent Health, Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence). We selected the relevant articles describing or evaluating one or more interventions initiated in the ED and designed to promote adolescent adherence to post-emergency care. The results are presented in a narrative review form.

RESULTS

Interventions are organized in three groups: interventions that take place solely at the ED (problem-solving interventions and educational interventions directed to families) and interventions that take place during and after emergency care (we included in this group the ED-Care program, the FISP program, and the SAFETY program), to which should be added interventions that take place prior to care, in particular specific trainings for medical and paramedical teams. Small samples and barriers in measuring adherence to care make statistical comparisons difficult, yet the interventions that seem most effective are those that target the time both during and after ED discharge, those which are implemented most rapidly after discharge, those which actively include parents, and those which involve an implication of the families about barriers to follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Our results show an effectiveness of complete programs on short-term compliance but no conclusion can be drawn on long-term effects. Most comprehensive care programs are based on the principle of adolescent compliance, which remains problematic. Until today, no ideal protocol exists to improve short-term as well as long-term compliance to care among adolescents after a suicide attempt. We have to improve our understanding of facilitators and barriers to follow-up using quantitative as well as qualitative research studies. Although it is well established that parents' involvement in the early stages of care is essential, little is known about the underlying processes. In these situations, qualitative studies could help to better target interventions that lead more particularly to follow up compliance in adolescence.