An interventional study of Text-messaging for safety reminders and Text-messaging with safety reminders and risk framing in Suicide and Suicide Attempt, sponsored by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 13 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-18.
Sponsored by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of the study is to determine effectiveness of a behaviorally informed text messaging intervention to help parents increase safety practices and reduce their teens' access to lethal means following a suicide-related emergency department visit.
This study tests a text messaging program that helps parents keep their teens safe after a visit to the emergency department for suicidal thoughts or behavior. Adolescents face a higher risk of suicide after leaving the emergency department, and limiting access to lethal means such as firearms, medications, or other dangerous items can help prevent suicide. The investigators invite parents and their teens aged 12 to 17 who visit the emergency department at Children's Medical Center Dallas for suicide-related reasons to join the study. After enrolling, families will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group receives usual care, which includes standard counseling about keeping teens safe in the emergency room and no study text messages. The second group receives direct text messages three times a week with reminders about safety reminders. The third group receives risk-framing text messages three times a week, which include safety reminders and information about suicide risk following an emergency room visit to motivate parents to take action. The study measures whether these text messages help parents follow safety recommendations at home. Parents and teens complete short surveys at the start of the study, six weeks later, and twelve weeks later. The study also tracks whether the teen returns to the emergency department or attempts suicide again. The study aims to determine if text messages can increase parental safety practices, reduce teens' access to lethal means, and prevent future suicide attempts. UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Health Dallas conduct the study. Messages are delivered through a secure, HIPAA-compliant virtual platform to ensure privacy.
281 studies on the registry are indexed under Suicide, Attempted; 91 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 129 is close to the median of 129 across 224 interventional studies indexed under Suicide, Attempted.
Browse Suicide, Attempted studies →University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 1,010 studies on the registry; 199 are open to participants now.
Of its 139 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 105 (76%) have results posted.
Compared within Suicide, Attempted, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Suicide. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Treatment as usual (ED-based lethal means counseling)
Thrice-weekly direct text messages encouraging Lethal Mean Restriction practices.
Other: Text-messaging for safety reminders
Thrice-weekly direct text messages encouraging Lethal Mean Restriction practices and suicide risk statistics to recalibrate parental risk perception
Other: Text-messaging with safety reminders and risk framing
The intervention consists of thrice-weekly, behaviorally informed text messages delivered to parents over six weeks period.
Thrice-weekly messages incorporating safety precautions and evidence-based suicide risk statistics to recalibrate parental risk perception.
Parent-reported adherence to lethal means restriction (LMR)
Change in parental adherence to lethal means restriction practices will be assessed using the Parent Adherence to Lethal Means Restriction (PA-LMR), a structured parent-report survey measuring adherence to multiple lethal means restriction behaviors. Items are rated on a Likert scale, with total scores ranging from 11 to 55; higher scores indicate greater adherence.
Time frame: Baseline to 6 weeks
Adolescent Perceived Access to Lethal Means
Perceived Access to Lethal Means is a self-report measure assessing adolescents' perceptions of their access to potentially lethal methods. Items assess the perceived ease of access, with total scores ranging from 5 to 30; higher scores indicate greater perceived access to lethal means.
Time frame: Baseline to 6 weeks
Exploratory Outcome
Number of participants (adolescents) with a suicide-related Emergency Department revisit and/or suicide attempt within 12 weeks post-randomization
Time frame: Baseline to 12 weeks
Plan to share: No — No individual participant data is planned to be shared with other researchers.
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