Systematic review of adolescent suicide prevention programs in community settings

During the last years there has been an increase in suicide in the population from 12 to 25 years. being the second cause of death in this age group. The implementation of prevention programs in this population is possible and effective. To date, different prevention programmes have been carried out in the community adolescent population, most of them with heterogeneous results. For this reason, this article deals with a review of prevention programmes at an international level in this population. with the aim of ascertaining their effectiveness. A systematic review of studies published in different databases was carried out. The inclusion criteria were: (a) articles measuring the effectiveness of the primary suicide prevention programme; (b) aimed at a sample from 0 to 20 years of age; (c) including an idea and/or attempted suicide; (d) in English or Spanish; (e) samples greater than 1; (f) in any field of action. This resulted in a total of 37 studies. After the intervention, there were statistically significant differences in suicide behaviours, depression, knowledge about suicide, hopelessness, anxiety. alcohol and drug use, family and social factors, coping skills and distress. Finally, although there are positive results after the interventions, few provided sufficient information to assess their efficacy in relation to the size of the intervention effect and randomization of the sample. Therefore, although these programmes may be supportive, further research is needed.