Werther vs. Papageno Effect Online: Randomized Controlled Trial of the Impact of Educative Suicide Prevention Websites on Suicide Risk Factors

Abstract

Background Organizations dedicated to suicide prevention frequently use websites to educate the public, but related evaluations are lacking. Aims To examine the effects of educative suicide prevention websites and the moderating effect of participants' baseline suicidality. Methods One hundred sixty adults were randomized to view either an educative website on suicide prevention or a website not related to suicide in a blinded randomized controlled trial. The primary outcome was suicidal ideation. The secondary outcomes were mood, suicide-related knowledge, and attitudes toward suicide and seeking professional help. Data were collected with questionnaires before and immediately after website exposure and one week later and analysed with linear mixed models. Results Participants with baseline suicidality above the median experienced a significant sustained reduction of suicidal ideation after exposure to an educative website on suicide in contrast to the control group. Furthermore, there was a significant short-term deterioration of mood and a significant sustained increase in suicide-related knowledge. Conclusions Educative components of professional suicide prevention service providers seem to have a sustainable medium-sized positive impact on suicide risk and increase suicide-related knowledge in a subsample of the general population with increased vulnerability. These findings support a potential suicide-protective Papageno effect online. Follow-up studies with clinical samples are needed.