Effect of phone call versus face-to-face follow-up on recurrent suicide attempts prevention in individuals with a history of multiple suicide attempts.

Background: To evaluate the efficacy of different ways of communications on prevention of suicidal reattempt, we compared the efficacy of phone call versus face-to-face follow-up in patients with previous attempt. Materials and Methods: In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 55 suicide reattempters who were admitted to the poisoning emergency were divided into phone call (29 patients) and face-to-face (26 patients) groups randomly. They were followed at 8 occasions: 2 nd and 4 th weeks, and the 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , 6 th , and 8 th months. The suicidal reattempt, suicidal thought, hope, and interest of the patients were assessed on each occasion, and the patients were guided to visit by a therapist, if needed. The findings were analyzed by Mann–Whitney, Chi-square, Cochran, Friedman, and independent t -tests using SPSS 20. Results: The status of “hope” and “interest” improved in both groups, but it showed more significant difference in the face-to-face group. Suicidal thoughts in both groups decreased over time, and this was more significant in the face-to-face group. However, we did not found any significant difference in the frequency of the suicidal reattempts between two groups. Conclusion: Face-to-face versus phone call follow-up of suicide attempters can significantly alleviate suicidal thoughts and improve hopes and interests.