Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions to Reduce Suicide Attempt and Completion among Female Service Members and Veterans: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This thesis is a semi-replication study that looks at the current knowledge base regarding the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as an intervention to reduce suicide attempt or suicide completion vs. TAU, with the female active-duty and veteran populations. Since 2008, when the original study was conducted, there has been a scarce amount of intervention studies conducted to test CBT interventions within this population. This research used a systematic review methodology to conduct analysis of the 2 studies that were found to meet inclusion criteria. The overall synthesis of both studies found that the combined results of the included studies show some evidence that CBT intervention is more effective at reducing suicidal behavior in a female active duty population than TAU. However, due to severe limit of clinical trials available, poor study quality and individual study limitations on directness towards the intended population, effectiveness cannot be definitively concluded. The data results prompt for future research to extend beyond only assessing risk factors for suicide, to evaluating CBT as an intervention on suicidal behavior, specifically for female active-duty and veterans.