Primary Suicide Risk Factor For Veterans Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Researchers working with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have found that post-traumatic stress disorder, the current most common mental disorder among veterans returning from service in the Middle East, is associated with an increased risk for thoughts of suicide.

Results of the study indicated that veterans who screened positive for PTSD were four times more likely to report suicide-related thoughts relative to veterans without the disorder. The research, published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, establishes PTSD as a risk factor for thoughts of suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. This holds true, even after accounting for other psychiatric disorder diagnoses, such as substance abuse and depression. Veterans who screened positive for PTSD and two or more comorbid mental disorders were significantly more likely to experience thoughts of suicide relative to veterans with PTSD alone.

As many as forty-six percent of veterans in the study experienced suicidal thoughts or behaviors in the month prior to seeking care, and of those veterans, three percent reported an actual attempt within four months prior to seeking the care. Suicide-related thoughts and behaviors discovered in a returning veteran who has been diagnosed with PTSD, especially in the presence of other mental disorders, may suggest an increased risk for suicide. This study is published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Lead author Matthew Jakupcak, Ph.D. is a researcher at the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) as part of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA.

Source:
Bethany H. Carland-Adams
Wiley-Blackwell
www.medicalnewstoday.com

Death of patients in a psychiatric hospital in New York presents mental health crisis

Death of woman in Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, demonstrates the need

for more public services for people with mental disorders, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

According to newspaper reports, the woman suffered from psychosis and agitation, is still waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours because the hospital was clearly not a place for psychiatric patients. He fell to the floor and put it about an hour before emergency personnel tried to revive them. Unfortunately, women died from causes that have not yet been determined.

"The question is how and why the hospital staff can ignore that person, fell to the ground in an emergency or war, and went around them when they died," said APA President Nada Stotland, MD "However, the lack of emergency The patient psychiatric services only part of a global health crisis, and that includes mental health. "

Stotland pointed to the lack of state and municipal center of mental health services, which are used for intervention to avoid a crisis that would lead to the person who will help in an emergency, poorly equipped to prevent such crises. It is a fact that most hospitals financial losses for mental health services, and may also play a role, thin as a high priority to hospital, where mental health.

"Incidents of this kind reflect a complete breakdown of mental health," said Stotland. "There is little continuity of care, but there are only a few are not adequately funded outpatient services so that repeated mental breakdowns, visits to the emergency room, and the need for hospitalization in the sickest people. Personala and emergency treatment for patients with heart attacks and broken Boneless, faces hundreds, sometimes thousands of critically ill patients with mental problems, often compounded by general medical illness, homelessness, ill-treatment and lack of insurance. "

Lack of resources leads to a permanent reduction in the number of beds for these people. At the same time, many times hospitals have no emergency room physician in the use of the ability to handle psychological problems. Limited access to necessary services can only intensify the feeling of stigma, many patients believe, to seek mental health care problem in the first place.

"The time for action long before the person is in a state of emergency to require hospitals ill-equipped to combat it," said Stotland. "The tragedy is that we know how to help these people recover and remain useful members of society, unnecessary suffering and ends costs society as much or more than enough attention to cost. Our society is not the largest network of basic security for our most vulnerable citizens. "

adapted from http://www.psych.org

Scientists Create Genetically Accurate Mouse Model for Autism

Marlene Busko

May 28, 2008 (London, United Kingdom) — Mice containing a mutation in a gene encoding neuroligin-3, which is implicated in human autism, may represent the first genetically accurate model of autism that is not confounded by other neurological diseases, researchers report.

The study, by Craig M. Powell, MD, and colleagues, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, Texas, showed that mice with a neuroligin-3

R451C substitution exhibited impaired social interaction but also showed superior spacial learning skills.

Dr. Powell presented these findings in an oral presentation at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research. Part of this work was recently published (Tabuchi K et al. Science. 2007;318:71-76).

"We've created the first animal model that’s a genetically accurate model of autism that’s not associated with other neuropsychiatric syndromes like fragile X syndrome, Rett's syndrome, or tuberous sclerosis," Dr. Powell told Medscape Psychiatry.

Their data suggest that this mouse model may be useful to better understand the molecular mechanism of autism and ultimately to design and test new therapeutic approaches, he added.

What Is Happening in the Autistic Brain?

During the past several years, scientists have been attempting to develop an appropriate animal model for autism, the group writes.

A small percentage of patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) carry mutations in genes encoding neuroligin-3 and -4, which are postsynaptic cell-adhesion molecules, they note. In addition, mutations in neuroligin binding partners, neurexin-1 and shank-3, have also been found in patients with ASD.

The team aimed to create and characterize a genetically accurate mouse model of autism by introducing a mutation linked with autism — the R451C substitution in neuroligin-3 — into mice.

The researchers examined the performance of 19 "knock-in" mice with this mutation vs 19 wild-type littermate controls in a variety of behavioral tests relevant to autism. They also performed various tests to measure synaptic protein activity.

Compared with the control mice, the R451C-mutant knock-in mice showed impaired social interaction, but they had normal anxiety, coordination, and sensitivity to pain. Interestingly, the mice with the mutated gene performed better in the Morris water maze, which showed that they had enhanced spatial learning ability.

Unexpectedly, these behavioral changes in the mutant mice were accompanied by an increase in inhibitory synaptic transmission in the cortex.

Encouraging Early Results

"These are very encouraging preliminary data," said Dr. Powell.

"What we are trying to do now is target the changes in synaptic function in these mice — the increase in inhibitory synaptic function in the cortex," he said. "We're using drugs that might reduce the level of inhibition that's abnormally elevated in the knock-in mice," he added, noting that it is hoped that this will treat the behavioral symptoms in the mice.

By looking at more mouse models and gaining a better understanding of what is wrong with the brain in autism, researchers hope to find common pathways that would some day be potential drug targets for patients, he said.

7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research: Oral Presentation 132.1. May 15-17, 2008

taken from medscape.com

Female Sex Offenders Often Have Mental Problems

Women who commit sexual offences are just as likely to have mental problems or drug addictions as other violent female criminals. This according to the largest study ever conducted of women convicted of sexual offences in Sweden.

Between 1988 and 2000, 93 women and 8,500 men were convicted of sexual offences in Sweden. Given that previous research has focused on male perpetrators, knowledge of the factors specific to female sex offenders has been scant.

A group of researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now looked into incidences of mental illness and drug abuse in these 93 convicted women, and compared them with over 20,000 randomly selected women in the normal population and with the 13,000-plus women who were convicted of non-sexual crimes over the same period.

Thirty-seven per cent of the women convicted of sex offences had undergone treatment at a psychiatric clinic during the period, and eight per cent had been diagnosed as having a psychosis. There was no difference in incidences of mental illness and drug abuse between these women and women who had committed other kinds of violent crime.

"This is interesting as men who commit sexual offences usually have fewer psychiatric problems than men who commit other violent crimes," says Niklas Långström, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet's Centre for Violence Prevention and one of the authors of the study. "So it seems as if female sex offenders, more so than male, suffer from mental illness or have drug problems."

However, the figures differ widely from the control group. Incidences of psychosis were 16 times higher amongst the sex offenders than the control group, drug abuse 23 times higher. According to the research team, the results indicate that women suspected or convicted of sexual offences should undergo routine psychiatric examination, something which, at present, is not done.

By sexual offence in this study is meant rape, non-consensual sex, sexual abuse and sexual molestation. The group has earlier published a similar study on male sexual offenders.

Publication:

'Sexual Offending in Women and Psychiatric Disorder: A National Case-Control Study'
Seena Fazel, Gabrielle Sjöstedt, Martin Grann & Niklas Långström
Archives of Sexual Behavior, online Maj 2008, DOI 10.1007/s10508-008-9375-4.

Karolinska Institutet is one of the leading medical universities in Europe. Through research, education and information, Karolinska Institutet contributes to improving human health. Each year, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

taken from medicalnewstoday