# Suicide Prevention for Patients with Chronic Pain

> **NIH NIH R56** · VETERANS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2021 · $296,776

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Every day, 120 people die from suicide, that is one person every 15 minutes. Suicide prevention treatments
focus on those at highest risk and are primarily delivered as mental health treatments, and yet 70% of patients
with suicide risk do not attend mental health treatment. Developing treatment for patients not served by
existing suicide prevention programs will improve access to care and is necessary to stop suicide. Patients
with chronic pain in the US (100 million) have 2.6-times greater risk of suicide and those on long-term opioid
treatment are at even greater risk. Unfortunately, they often do not receive mental health treatment and thus do
not receive suicide prevention interventions. They do receive frequent healthcare for their pain providing an
unmet opportunity to integrate suicide prevention into their treatment for pain. This study aims to test the
efficacy of Problem-Solving Treatment (PST) for suicidal ideation and chronic pain as a therapy that can be
delivered in non-mental health settings. Our hypothesis is that PST for suicidal ideation and chronic pain will
reduce suicidal ideation by reducing problem-solving deficits and feelings of burdensomeness and not
belonging. The goal of this study is to test the efficacy of remote-delivered PST for suicide and chronic pain
and elucidate the active components of treatment. Our specific aims are: (Aim 1) remote-delivered PST
reduces (H1) suicidal ideation (H2) problem-solving deficits (H3) pain-related disability, (H4) feelings of
burdensomeness and (H5) feelings of not belonging as compared to enhanced health education for patients
with chronic pain and suicidal ideation immediately after treatment and 6 months after treatment. (Aim 2)
Determine mechanisms of change by examining whether reductions in problem-solving deficits, feelings of
burdensomeness, and feelings of not belonging mediate the relationship between PST and reductions in
suicidal ideation among patients with suicidal ideation and chronic pain. (Exploratory Aim 3) Explore if remote
delivered PST is efficacious for patients with chronic pain and moderate suicide risk who are prescribed long-
term opioids and not prescribed long-term opioids. Findings from this study will help elucidate the mechanisms
by which chronic pain contributes to suicidal ideation and importantly, identify the active mediating targets for
suicide prevention treatments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10168646
- **Project number:** 5R56MH121555-02
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa Marie McAndrew
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $296,776
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-05-20 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10168646

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10168646, Suicide Prevention for Patients with Chronic Pain (5R56MH121555-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10168646. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*