Major depression is a common and disabling brain condition marked not only by the presence of depressed mood but also by its effects on sleep, energy, decision-making, memory and thoughts of death or of suicide.   Major depression affects 15 million adults in the U.S., and the World Health Organization projects that by 2020, it will be the largest contributor to disability in the world after heart disease.   While antidepressants have helped many to recover and resume their lives, only 30 percent of patients will experience full remission with the first medication they use. Patients typically move on to try a series of other antidepressants. A persistent problem with such drugs has been major side effects, including obesity, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, drowsiness and n...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

A man and woman are arrested on suspicion of helping a disabled man from South Tyneside take his own life. (Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition)

Abstract: The present study explored both socioeconomic and climatic factors to obtain a more comprehensive view of the asymmetric regional suicide death rate during 1998–2006 in Taiwan. The annual suicide death rate, population and meteorological data from 19 cities/counties in Taiwan were analysed by multiple regression. Five socioeconomic (sex ratio, no spouse, aged, unemployment and low income) and three climatic (temperature, rainfall and sunshine) factors were identified as significant, explaining 59.0% of the variance in the total suicide death rate. ‘Without spouse’ and ‘aged’ were associated with the highest risk, while ‘low income with financial aids’ was strongly protective. The most influential climatic factor was ‘temperature,’ which was negatively correlated...

Abstract: Suicide is a leading cause of death in individuals 15–34years of age in China. Highly lethal pesticides are a common method used for suicide in Chinese rural areas. This case-control study aimed to test hypotheses concerning the suicide risks associated with pesticide access. Subjects included 370 rural completed suicides aged 15–34years and 370 living controls matched on age, gender and residence (rural/urban location). Data were collected by a psychological autopsy design with proxy respondents. Pesticide access was a significant risk factor for suicide even after controlling for other known risk factors in social and psychiatric domains, such as education level, living situation, marital status, family annual income and mental disorder. Increased risk was accounted for by ...

Abstract: Suicide is a public health problem all around the world. Family studies showed a strong heritability but, to date, few genetic data are available. Thus, in the present study we investigated whether a panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in neuronal cell adhesion molecule 1 (NCAM) 1 was associated with suicidal behaviour as well as specific traits related to suicide. A total of two hundred and fifty-nine individuals with a positive history of suicidal behaviour and 312 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. Rs2301228, rs1884, rs1245113, rs1369816, rs2196456 and rs584427 in NCAM1 were genotyped. No marker was significantly associated with suicidal behaviour vs. controls or with sub-types of attempted vs. completed, violent vs. non-violent, impulsive vs. non-impulsi...

(University of Maryland) A new report by University of Maryland terrorism researchers concludes that the deadly hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Networks in suburban Washington, D.C. meets the criteria of a terrorist act - a rare one for media organizations and the nation's capital region. Hostage-taking, though, is a familiar pattern in D.C. terror cases, the researchers add. There has never been U.S. environmentally inspired suicide eco-terrorism, they say, but don't draw conclusions about whether that occurred at Discovery. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

CONCLUSION: Patients have the right to refuse or request the withdrawal of any unwanted treatment, and we argue that this right extends to VAD support. We also argue that the cause of death in these cases is the underlying heart disease, not assisted suicide or euthanasia. Therefore, patients with heart failure supported with VADs or their surrogates may request withdrawal of this treatment. In our view, carrying out such requests is permissible in accordance with the principles that apply to withdrawing other life-sustaining treatments. (Source: Mayo Clinic Proceedings)

CONCLUSIONS: From 2001 to 2006, the duration of emergency department visits made by patients presenting with mental health complaints and visits made by all other patients increased at similar rates. However, the longer visits for certain groups of mental health patients suggest that emergency departments incur higher costs in connection with the delivery of services to persons in need of acute stabilization. (Source: Psychiatr Serv)

Researchers from the University of Manchester have developed a social intervention to help British Pakistani women with depression. Their 10-week programme, which was trialled in the north-west of England, helped the women feel more positive and improved their satisfaction and social functioning. The findings are published in the September issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. Previous studies have shown that South Asian women living in the UK - particularly those of Pakistani origin - have a higher rate of depression, suicide and self-harm than White women... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

(Source: NHS Evidence - Neurological conditions - News)

Conclusions: Clinical and fMRI data suggest that mental pain triggering suicidal behavior may have the quality of traumatic stress, associated with decreased prefrontal activity. Planning and acting out suicidal impulses in response to mental pain, however, is associated with increased activity in the frontal cortex, suggesting that goal-directed suicidal behavior is associated with a reduction of mental pain. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Conclusions: Identifying lifetime manic symptoms with the MDQ in persons presenting with (unipolar) depressive or anxiety disorders, can not only help the recognition of actual bipolar disorder (as described in previous studies), but also the identification of a subgroup of patients with more severe symptomatology, more comorbid anxiety and alcohol dependence disorders, and more suicidality. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Conclusions: The associations of health risk behaviors with suicidal ideation and attempts varied by gender, and the correlates of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts were different. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Discussion: CBP users are mostly young males. Although clinical findings are compatible with those for cocaine abuse, euphoria is a major clinical feature in CBP abusers. The presence of respiratory symptoms reflects the complications associated with the ingestion route. Suicide attempts occurring within a few hours of CBP confirm the high prevalence of suicidal ideation reported by other authors. cocaine base paste, clinical features, suicide attempts. PMID: 20802985 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Adicciones)

Conclusions This research underlines the importance of psychiatric risk factors for suicide in custody and in particular comorbidity. The finding that a formal care plan was in place for most cases at the time of their near-lethal act is indicative of good risk detection, but also suggests high levels of unmet need. Given the potential complexity of their mental health needs, interventions incorporating pharmacological and psychological treatments should be considered for at-risk prisoners. (Source: The British Journal of Psychiatry)

Conclusions The impact of suicide reporting may not be restricted to harmful effects; rather, coverage of positive coping in adverse circumstances, as covered in media items about suicidal ideation, may have protective effects. (Source: The British Journal of Psychiatry)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

(Source: Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology)

The loss of interest, ruminations of suicide and feelings of guilt and sadness that are the hallmarks of depression may be debilitating. But it is depression's physical warning signs -- fatigue, sleep disturbance and appetite changes -- that are the... (Source: OrlandoSentinel: Medical Research)

(Source: History of Psychiatry)

Conclusion: Some users of illicit drugs also use AAS for reasons other than the anabolic properties of these compounds. Therefore, considering that AAS may cause or contribute to diverse morbidity, it is important to ask users of illicit drugs about AAS use, even when obvious external signs of AAS use are lacking. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)