An interventional study of Suicide prevention treatment in Suicidal Ideation, Suicidal and Suicidal Thoughts, sponsored by University of Pennsylvania. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 13 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-26.
Sponsored by University of Pennsylvania · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of this clinical trial is to develop and test an app designed to reduce suicide risk and improve emotional well-being in adolescents. The study will test if the app's daily check ins and recommended mood boosting skills will improve the adolescent's overall mood and suicidality. The main question it aims to answer is:
In the study, adolescents will:
In the study, the legal guardian of the adolescent will:
Adolescent suicide remains a major concern, and current treatments and prevention approaches are not effective for all adolescents. Some adolescents, particularly those who have difficulty experiencing pleasure or positive emotions (anhedonia), may be at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and may benefit less from existing interventions. This study aims to address this gap by developing and testing a digital intervention designed to improve reward sensitivity, increase positive emotions, and reduce suicidal thoughts in adolescents.
The intervention uses a just-in-time adaptive intervention approach, meaning that participants receive brief support activities and coping tools on their smartphone throughout the day. These activities are designed to promote healthy reward-seeking behaviors, improve mood, and provide support during moments when adolescents may be especially open to intervention. The study also uses ecological momentary assessments, which are short real-time surveys completed multiple times per day to measure mood, motivation, thoughts, context, and daily experiences.
The study will be conducted in multiple phases. The study is currently recruiting for Phase 1. In Phase 1, adolescents and their legal guardians will participate in a co-design process and provide feedback on the digital platform and intervention content to improve usability and acceptability.
Participants will complete interviews, questionnaires, and digital assessments related to mood, emotions, reward sensitivity, coping behaviors, and suicidal thoughts. Findings from this study will help inform future digital suicide prevention interventions for adolescents.
569 studies on the registry are indexed under Suicidal Ideation; 203 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 80 across 469 interventional studies indexed under Suicidal Ideation.
Browse Suicidal Ideation studies →University of Pennsylvania is the lead sponsor of 1,668 studies on the registry; 235 are open to participants now.
Of its 158 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 109 (69%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
ADOLESCENTS
LEGALGUARDIANS
Exclusion Criteria:
ADOLESCENTS
LEGALGUARDIANS
- There are no exclusion criteria for legal guardians
Digital just-in-time adaptive intervention to enhance reward sensitivity and reduce suicidal ideation
Also known as: DIGIReward
Acceptability of Digital Suicide Prevention Intervention
At least 80% of youth will report in qualitative feedback that the digital suicide prevention intervention is helpful and relevant to their daily lives.
Time frame: Day 1 (Focus Group)
Usability of Digital Suicide Prevention Intervention
The digital suicide prevention intervention prototype will exceed established usability benchmarks, as measured by the System Usability Scale (SUS; range = 0-100, with higher scores indicating greater perceived usability), with a mean SUS score of at least 70.
Time frame: Day 1 (Focus Group)
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Aug 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jun 2027, 10 months after the start.
Of 281 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Suicidal Ideation, half reached primary completion within 30 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 54. This study's planned 10 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 290 studies reached it within 29 months; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 53.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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