Our Research

Dr. Bryan co-developed Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) for Suicide Prevention and Crisis Response Planning (CRP), two new generation therapies that have been shown to rapidly reduce suicidal thinking and risk for suicide attempts. BCBT is a 10-12-session psychological treatment that teaches people how to reduce emotional distress and change how they react to stressful situations. CRP is a central component of BCBT that can be used in a wide range of settings and readily integrated with other mental health treatments. Our research shows that BCBT and CRP reduces suicide attempts by up to 75% as compared to other mental health treatments.

Our team has pioneered the development and testing of massed therapy approaches for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In massed therapy, treatment sessions are scheduled every day during shortened timeframes (usually 2 weeks) instead of once a week for several months. This approach dramatically speeds up recovery time. More recently, we found that adding CRP to massed therapies for PTSD leads to faster reductions in suicidal thinking among people with PTSD. We are now testing the feasibility and effectiveness of massed BCBT to determine if we can similarly speed up reductions in suicidal thinking among people with other diagnoses.

There is no single cause of suicide or pathway to suicide. For some people, suicide occurs after lengthy and prolonged periods of deliberate and intense planning whereas for others, suicide occurs suddenly in response to an unexpected life circumstance, without much forethought. Around half of those who attempt suicide have a psychological disorder like depression or anxiety but the other half do not. Our team seeks to understand the different pathways people follow when experiencing suicidal thoughts and urges, how people become suicidal and how they recover from those states, and which strategies work best for each pathway.