Postcards from the EDge project: randomised controlled trial of an intervention using postcards to reduce repetition of hospital treated deliberate self poisoning

doi:10.1136/bmj.38579.455266.E0

BMJ 2005;331:805 (8 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.38579.455266.E0 (published 23 September 2005)

Paper

Postcards from the EDge project: randomised controlled trial of an intervention using postcards to reduce repetition of hospital treated deliberate self poisoning

Gregory L Carter, head¹, Kerrie Clover, conjoint senior lecturer¹, Ian M Whyte, conjoint professor², Andrew H Dawson, conjoint professor², Catherine D'Este, associate professor³

¹ Suicide Prevention Research Unit, Centre for Mental Health Studies, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, ² Discipline of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, ³ Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Australia

Correspondence to: Dr Gregory Carter, Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Locked Bag No 7, Hunter Region Mail Centre, NSW 2310, Australia gregory.carter{at}newcastle.edu.au

Objective To determine whether an intervention using postcards(postcards from the EDge project) reduces repetitions of hospitaltreated deliberate self poisoning.

Design Randomised controlled trial.

Setting Regional referral service for general hospital treateddeliberate self poisoning in Newcastle, Australia.

Participants 772 patients aged over 16 years with deliberateself poisoning.

Intervention Non-obligatory intervention using eight postcardsover 12 months along with standard treatment compared with standardtreatment alone.

Main outcome measures Proportion of patients with one or morerepeat episodes of deliberate self poisoning and the numberof repeat episodes for deliberate self poisoning per personin 12 months.

Results The proportion of repeaters with deliberate self poisoningin the intervention group did not differ significantly fromthat in the control group (57/378, 15.1%, 95% confidence interval11.5% to 18.7% v 68/394, 17.3%, 13.5% to 21.0%: difference betweengroups -2%, -7% to 3%). In unadjusted analysis the number ofrepetitions were significantly reduced (incidence risk ratio0.55, 0.35 to 0.87).

Conclusion A postcard intervention reduced repetitions of deliberateself poisoning, although it did not significantly reduce theproportion of individual repeaters.

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