Grant for research on treating severe suicidality in young adults

Feeling so distraught, worthless or hopeless that you think it would be better to not live anymore. This experience is very hard and frightening, and many young adults experience this to some degree. In many cases, this feeling fades again without any intervention. However, the pressure of suicidal thoughts can also become overwhelming. The ALIVE consortium, a collaboration between KU Leuven and Amsterdam UMC receives a research grant of nearly 1 million euro for research into the treatment of suicidal young adults.

Parents and other caregivers

Suicide is the number one cause of death among young adults; too little is being done about this. In addition to prevention, suicidality with severe psychological suffering requires better and more targeted treatment. For example, with certain forms of psychotherapy. ALIVE is a Dutch-Belgian consortium working to improve the treatment of severe suicidality among young adults. This consortium was set up by Claudi Bockting (Centre for Urban Mental Health, Amsterdam UMC) and Nadia van der Spek (Amsterdam UMC) and Guy Bosmans of KU Leuven. ZonMw and KCE have awarded the consortium with a prestigious BeNefit (Belgium-Netherlands Funding of International Trials) research grant of nearly 1 million euro. This is the first time BeNEfit has awarded a grant to improve the treatment of mental disorders.

With these funds, the consortium will investigate a new psychotherapeutic treatment in 13 GGZ treatment centers across the Netherlands and Belgium. This new treatment: Attachment Based Family Therapy (ABFT), focuses not only on the young adult, but also on parents or other caregivers. The study compares ABFT with current standard treatments for suicidality.