Extrapolation from attempted suicides to completed suicides: A test.

Divided a sample of 453 attempted suicides into 3 groups on the basis of their intent to die. Two variables were found to increase in a linear fashion with increasing intent to die: depression inventory scores and hopelessness scale scores. A subsample of the attempted suicides, who went on to subsequently kill themselves, was studied, and their depression and hopelessness scores were found to be similar to those of the group of attempted suicides with the greatest intent to die. This finding indicates that it is possible to extrapolate from research findings on attempted suicides the psychological characteristics of completed suicides. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Timing of completed suicides among residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1951-1985

In man, GHRH has been shown to potentiate the TSH-releasing activity of TRH. To study the way by which GHRH affects TRH-stimulated TSH release, we examined the effect of GHRH (1-29)NH2 on basal and stimulated TSH secretion in intact male rats and superfused dispersed rat pituitary cells. In the intact rats, GHRH(1-29)NH2 potentiated TRH-stimulated TSH release in the evening, but potentiation was not observed in the morning and in dispersed pituitary cells. Basal TSH levels were not changed by GHRH(1-29)NH2. It is concluded that GHRH(1-29)NH2 potentiates the TSH-releasing activity of TRH in the evening in rats possibly through suprahypophyseal disinhibition.     

Therapy of psychic trauma resulting from attempted filicide.

Peter, a 5-yr-old "favorite child" survived an attack in which his mother slashed his throat with a razor. Peter's reactions to the trauma, his attempts at resolution of ambivalence toward his mother, and finally the emergence of transference and castration anxiety are discussed. Peter's reactions and attempts at conflict resolution are illustrated by excerpts from therapy sessions and discussed from the perspective of normal child development. Parental dynamics, court involvement, and the therapist's countertransference are presented, with suggestions as to how similar cases can be managed to avoid premature termination. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonmonotonic Extrapolation in Function Learning.

This article reports the results of an experiment addressing extrapolation in function learning, in particular the issue of whether participants can extrapolate in a nonmonotonic manner. Existing models of function learning, including the extrapolation association model of function learning (EXAM; E. L. DeLosh, J. R. Busemeyer, & M. A. McDaniel, 1997), cannot account for this type of extrapolation pattern. We present the results of an experiment in which participants were shown a series of paired stimulus-response magnitudes where the relationship between these 2 dimensions conformed to a cyclic function. Participants were shown to extrapolate from these training data in a nonmonotonic way, contrary to predictions from EXAM. A new model of function learning is presented, which predicts responses more accurately than EXAM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Casualty nurses' attitudes to attempted suicide

This study explores the attitudes of casualty nurses to attempted suicide. The nurses' age and length of experience in casualty were the independent variables. A total of 142 nurses from 11 hospitals in Northern Ireland had questionnaires circulated to them, with a 66.9% response rate. There were significant differences on four of the variables in relation to nurses' ages, and on two of the variables in relation to the nurses' length of experience in casualty. The older and the more experienced nurses seem to have more positive attitudes than the younger or the less experienced nurses. However, further nursing research, in Northern Ireland, is needed to corroborate these findings. Other recommendations are made.     

Psychodynamic doctoral dissertations completed in 2008.

Presents a list of psychodynamic doctoral dissertations completed in 2008. The list is arranged alphabetically by name of the educational institution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychodynamic doctoral dissertations completed in 2009.

Announces the students who completed a psychodynamic doctoral dissertation in 2009. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dyadic crisis suicides in mental hospital patients.

Studied 70 cases of completed suicide among male veterans: 50 "dyadic" (precipitated by disruption of interpersonal relations), and 20 controls (precipitated by nondyadic events). Case history and hospitalization factors, personality characteristics of both members of the dyad, characteristics of their interpersonal relationships, stresses immediately prior to the suicide, and patterns of dependency were related. The dyadic suicide group showed more (a) disordered social relationships, (b) suppression or rejection of significant others when young, (c) open dependence in varied areas, and (d) diagnoses of depression. Distinguishable, although overlapping, personality configurations emerged when the dyadic group was broken down into subgroups of strained, broken, and terminated relationships. It is concluded that the dyadic partner should be included in the treatment program of suicidal patients when the main problem is the relationship. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in behaviors leading to completed suicide

Nonclostridial necrotizing soft-tissue infections are usually polymicrobial, with greater than 90 per cent involving beta-hemolytic streptococci or coagulase-positive staphylococci. The remaining 10 per cent are usually due to Gram-negative enteric pathogens. We describe the case of a 46-year-old woman with bilateral lower extremity fungal soft tissue infections. She underwent multiple surgical debridements of extensive gangrenous necrosis of the skin and subcutaneous fat associated with severe acute arteritis. Histopathological examination revealed Aspergillus niger as the sole initial pathogen. Despite aggressive surgical debridement, allografts, and intravenous amphotericin B, her condition clinically deteriorated and she ultimately died of overwhelming infection. Treatment for soft-tissue infections include surgical debridement and intravenous antibiotics. More specifically, Aspergillus can be treated with intravenous amphotericin B, 5-fluorocytosine, and rifampin. Despite these treatment modalities, necrotizing fascitis is associated with a 60 per cent mortality rate. Primary fungal pathogens should be included in the differential diagnosis of soft-tissue infections.     

Sleep disturbance preceding completed suicide in adolescents.

We examined sleep difficulties preceding death in a sample of adolescent suicide completers as compared with a matched sample of community control adolescents. Sleep disturbances were assessed in 140 adolescent suicide victims with a psychological autopsy protocol and in 131 controls with a similar semistructured psychiatric interview. Rates of sleep disturbances were compared between groups. Findings indicate suicide completers had higher rates of overall sleep disturbance, insomnia, and hypersomnia as compared with controls within both the last week and the current affective episode. Group differences in overall sleep disturbance (both within the last week and present episode), insomnia (last week), and hypersomnia (last week) remained significant after controlling for the differential rate of affective disorder between groups. Similarly, overall sleep disturbance (last week and present episode) and insomnia (last week) distinguished completers in analyses accounting for severity of depressive symptoms. Only a small percentage of the sample exhibited changes in sleep symptom severity in the week preceding completed suicide, but of these, a higher proportion were completers. These findings support a significant and temporal relationship between sleep problems and completed suicide in adolescents. Sleep difficulties should therefore be carefully considered in prevention and intervention efforts for adolescents at risk for suicide. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attempted, threatened, and completed suicide.

Anamnestic and psychiatric data are analyzed for attempted, threatened, and completed suicide cases. "The conclusion may be drawn that the dangerous patient, suicidally speaking, is the one with a history of previous suicidal attempts or threats, and that the most dangerous period is when the patient appears to have recovered." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution to the study of suicide prevention. Study of a group of 372 subjects from 28 to 35 years after attempted suicide

The authors have treated the subsequent lives of 372 suicide attempters and have made a new follow-up study 28 to 35 years after the suicide attempt. They reveal a general excess deathrate in this sample of medical, surgical and psychiatric clinic patients, and a considerable excess deathrate by suicide as compared with the population as a whole. These two types of excess deathrate persist throughout the follow-up period. Conclusions on suicide prevention are drawn from the results. After describing the three main groups of dead, deceased by suicide, and living subjects, the authors compare those deceased by suicide with those deceased from other causes, and those deceased by suicide with subjects of the other two groups in search of possible group characteristics of potential predictive value. The results of this analysis are somewhat disappointing; discussion of the research leads to criticism of the contradictory results obtained by previous studies in this field. Analysis of subjects still alive at the close of the follow-up period shows that their psychopathological evolution is relatively favourable, with the exception of a group of patients identifiable by a set of distinctive negative factors.     

Human immunodeficiency virus partner notification. Cost and effectiveness data from an attempted randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: Determine the cost and effectiveness of partner notification for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. METHODS: Persons testing HIV positive in three areas were randomly assigned one of four approaches to partner notification. Analysis plans changed because disease intervention specialists notified many partners from the patient referral group. We dropped the patient referral group and combined the others to assess the cost and effectiveness of provider referral. RESULTS: The 1,070 patients reported 8,633 partners. Of those 1,035 were located via record search or in person. A previous positive test was reported by 248 partners. Of the 787 others, 560 were tested: 438 were HIV negative and 122 were newly identified as HIV positive. The intervention specialist's time totaled 197 minutes per index patient. The cost of the intervention specialist's time, travel, and overhead was $268,425: $251 per index patient, $427 per partner notified, or $2,200 per new HIV infection identified. No demographic characteristic of the index patient strongly predicted the likelihood of finding an infected partner. CONCLUSION: We could not compare the effectiveness of different partner notification approaches because of frequent crossover between randomized groups. The cost of partner notification can be compared with other approaches to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome prevention, but the benefits are not easily measured. We do not know the number of HIV cases prevented or the value of fulfilling the ethical obligation to warn partners of a potential threat to their health.     

Test-retest characteristics of a group of attempted suicide patients.

15 male and 36 female patients who had been psychologically tested after having made a suicide attempt were retested in a postal follow-up to ascertain whether significant changes had occurred in their scores on the Neuroticism Scale Questionnaire (NSQ) and Symptom Sign Inventory. Men and women differed significantly in their response to postal retest. It is concluded that while women who responded to retest were representative of all women in the group, men who responded could not be so considered due to the disproportionate number of repeat-prone individuals in this group. These men showed no change in their test scores. Women, overall, did not change on any NSQ variables, although those who were retested quite soon after the original testing showed an increase in tendermindedness. They did show a significant reduction in psychiatric symptomatology, especially where the test-retest interval was longer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accident-proneness in attempted suicide and in automobile accident victims.

The Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study was administered to 58 consecutively admitted Ss who had attempted suicide and to 30 consecutively admitted automobile accident victims matched with Ss without histories of accidents. The expectation that similar and deviant modes of handling aggression and frustration might be revealed in the suicide and accident Ss responses to the P-F Study was not supported. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extrapolation of in vitro enzyme induction data to humans in vivo

Enzyme induction generally increases the rate and extent of xenobiotic metabolism in vitro, but physiological constraints can dampen these effects in vivo. Biotransformation kinetics determined in hepatocytes in vitro can be extrapolated to whole animals based on the hepatocellularity of the liver, since the initial velocity of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is directly proportional to the total enzyme present in the cell. The biotransformation kinetics of various xenobiotics determined with isolated hepatocytes in vitro have been shown to accurately predict pharmacokinetics in whole animals. Analysis of the kinetic data, using physiologically based pharmacokinetics, allows extrapolation of xenobiotic biotransformation across dose routes and species in a biologically realistic context. Several fold variations were observed in the bioactivation of the hepatotoxicant furan by isolated human hepatocytes, due to induction of cytochrome P450 2E1. Extrapolation of these data to humans in vivo showed that furan bioactivation was limited by hepatic blood flow delivery of the substrate. One important consequence of hepatic blood flow limitation is that the amount of metabolite formed in the liver is unaffected by increases in Vmax due to enzyme induction. Therefore, interindividual variations in cytochrome P450 2E1 among human populations would not affect the bioactivation of many rapidly metabolized hazardous chemical air pollutants. The hepatic blood flow limitation of biotransformation is also observed after oral bolus dosing of rapidly metabolized compounds. More slowly metabolized xenobiotics, such as therapeutic agents, are only partially limited by hepatic blood flow and other processes.     

Some aspects of attempted, successful, and effective leadership.

The author tested 3 theorems from his own book: (a) successful leadership is related more to ability in effective compared to ineffective groups, (b) successful leadership is related more to esteem in effective compared to ineffective groups, (c) discrepancies between esteem and self-esteem are manifested in unsuccessful leadership. "The 51 groups of ROTC cadets, each evaluating 10 problems, provided data concerning 510 discussions. These 510 discussions were divided into the 255 most publicly effective discussions and 255 least publicly effective. Then, the 1250 measures of relative success as a leader drawn from the 255 effective discussions among five members each were correlated with their scores for initial accuracy." The data were interpreted to substantiate all 3 theorems. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3GF20B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)