A handful of counseling sessions for people who tried to kill themselves significantly reduced the chances they would make another attempt, the first time talk therapy has been proved effective for suicide prevention. 
 
 The findings released yesterday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry demonstrate the benefits of therapy for those at high risk of attempting suicide again, said Annette Erlangsen, an associate professor in mental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Many suicide survivors who don’t require hospitalization for a psychiatric illness are simply patched up and sent home without counseling referrals, she said. 
 
 Previous studies have found 1 in 6 will try to harm themselves again within a year and as many as 2 percent will kill themselves, Erlangsen said in a telephone interview. The analysis she conducted with co-author Elizabeth Stuart found six to 10 sessions of talk therapy reduced suicide attempts by 27 percent and deaths by 38 percent in just one year. The benefits lasted as long as two decades, they found. 
 
 “It’s very important to offer support for people who have attempted suicide,” Erlangsen said. “We know that they are at risk for repeating and dying from suicide. In just one year we would prevent one suicide attempt for every 44 people seen.” 
 
 The researchers analyzed the data from more than 65,000 people in Denmark who attempted suicide from 1992 to 2010, when the country was starting suicide prevention clinics. They compared the records of 5,678 people who received any type of psychosocial therapy, getting as few as one or two sessions, with 17,304 people who hadn’t gone for treatment. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net Andrew Pollack, John Lear 

 Image copyright SPL Image caption Talking therapy gives people time and space to explore their feelings 
 
 Talk therapy sessions can help reduce the risk of suicide among high-risk groups, suggests a US study. 
 
 Researchers from John Hopkins University tracked more than 5,000 Danish people who had attempted suicide and later received psychosocial counselling. 
 
 They found suicides went down by 26% after five years, compared to people who had no therapy sessions. 
 
 The findings are published in Lancet Psychiatry. 
 
 The participants in the study volunteered to have six to 10 talking therapy sessions at suicide prevention clinics in Denmark. 
 
 Our findings provide a solid basis for recommending that this type of therapy be considered for populations at risk for suicide. Dr Elizabeth Stuart, Johns Hopkins University 
 
 Their outcomes were compared with around 17,000 people who had attempted suicide but had not gone for treatment afterwards. 
 
 Participants were then followed up for up to 20 years. 
 
 Fewer suicides 
 
 The aim of this therapy is to give people time and space to talk about their troubles and explore difficult feelings with a trained professional. 
 
 During the first year, those who received therapy were 27% less likely to attempt suicide again. They were also 38% less likely to die of any cause. 
 
 After five years, this same group saw 26% fewer suicides. Ten years later, the positive effects of the therapy were still evident. 
 
 Dr Elizabeth Stuart, study co-author and associate professor in the Bloomberg School's department of mental health, said the long-term follow-up was ideal for gathering information on which suicide prevention treatments worked. 
 
 "Our findings provide a solid basis for recommending that this type of therapy be considered for populations at risk for suicide," she said. 
 
 Her colleague Annette Erlangsen, also from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said: "We know that people who have attempted suicide are a high-risk population and that we need to help them. However, we did not know what would be effective in terms of treatment. 
 
 "Now we have evidence that psychosocial treatment - which provides support, not medication - is able to prevent suicide in a group at high risk of dying by suicide." 
 
 They said it was likely that providing a safe, confidential place to talk was the key to the success of the therapy sessions. 
 
 But the researchers say they plan to gather more data on which specific types of therapy work best.
– Talk therapy is a simple but powerful way to stop people at high risk of suicide from harming themselves, according to new research. In a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, researchers who tracked tens of thousands of Danes over an 18-year period found that suicides were down 26% over a five-year period among people who had attempted suicide and received talking therapy sessions at a suicide prevention clinic, compared to those sent home with no treatment, the BBC reports. In the first year, those who received talk therapy were not only 27% less likely to attempt suicide again, they were 38% less likely to die of any cause—and the positive effects could still be seen more than a decade later. The researchers say the study is the first solid evidence "that psychosocial treatment—which provides support, not medication—is able to prevent suicide in a group at high risk of dying by suicide." A study co-author tells Bloomberg that even though previous studies showed that one in six people who survive a suicide attempt go on to harm themselves again within a year, many suicide survivors who don't require hospitalization for a mental illness are simply sent home without being referred to a counselor. The researchers, who say the study reinforces the fact that it's "very important to offer support for people who have attempted suicide," plan follow-up studies to determine which kinds of therapy work best. (A World Health Organization study this year found that with a death every 40 seconds, suicide "kills more than conflicts, wars, and natural catastrophes.")