scholarly journals Psychopathology and Suicide among Quebec Physicians: A Nested Case Control Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Gagné ◽  
Javad Moamai ◽  
Dominique Bourget

Objective. To describe a psychiatric profile and characteristics of physicians who killed themselves in Quebec between 1992 and 2009.Method. The cases of 36 physicians (7 females and 29 males) and 36 nonphysicians who committed suicide were matched for age and gender and examined in a nested case control design. All subjects were judged as definite suicide by the Quebec Coroner Head Office. Consensus regarding DSM-IV diagnoses was established by two forensic psychiatrists.Results. Rates of all Axis I diagnoses were 83% for physicians and 91% for nonphysicians at the time of suicide. Major depressive disorders were the most frequently observed pathology in both groups (61% and 56%, resp.).Conclusions. Physicians and nonphysicians who committed suicide in Quebec suffered from the same type of psychiatric disorder at the time of killing themselves. The findings advocate strongly for more efficient suicide prevention measures including early detection and treatment of mood disorders for the physicians.

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adalberto Campo-Arias ◽  
Luis Alfonso Díaz-Martínez ◽  
German Eduardo ◽  
Rueda Jaimes ◽  
Laura Del Pilar Cadena ◽  
...  

This study aimed to validate Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS; 1965) among Colombian people living in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Although used frequently in Colombian investigations to identify depressive disorders, the SDS had not been validated formally among the general Colombian population. Participants were a random sample of people dwelling in an urban area, mean age was 37.4 years (SD 12.7). Participants filled out the SDS, and were then interviewed by psychiatrists using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1999) to diagnosis a major depressive episode (MDE) during the last month. Forty was taken as a cut-off point. SDS scores ranged from 21 to 62 (M 36.5, SD 9.1). Using the SDS, 95 (35.7%) persons reported clinically meaningful depressive symptoms. The SCID-I interview identified 44 (16.5%) persons with MDE. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.832. The sensitivity was 88.6% (95%CI 74.6–95.7), the specificity 74.8% (95%CI 68.4–80.2), the positive predictive value 41.1% (95%CI 31.2–51.6), the negative predict value 97.1% (95%CI 92.9–98.9), half Cohen's kappa coefficient 0.433 (95%CI 0.327–0.539), and area under ROC curve 0.901 (95%CI 0.857–0.945). The SDS was found to be a useful tool for screening MDE among the general community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne Roumans ◽  
Kristina Sundquist ◽  
Ashfaque A. Memon ◽  
Anna Hedelius ◽  
Jan Sundquist ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders and is a great disease burden. However, its underlying pathophysiology and aetiology remain poorly understood. Available evidence suggests that circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with MDD, but it is still unknown whether miRNAs can predict subsequent incident MDD. Methods In this nested case-control study, a total of 104 individuals, who were free of MDD at baseline, from the Women’s Health in Lund Area (WHILA) cohort were included. Among them, 52 individuals developed MDD (cases) during the 5 years follow-up and 52 individuals did not develop MDD (controls). Plasma expression levels of miR-17-5p, miR-134-5p, miR-144-5p, let-7b-5p and let-7c-5p at baseline were assessed using qRT-PCR. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of developing MDD among individuals with different levels of miRNA expression. Results Plasma expression levels of let-7b-5p were significantly lower (p = 0.02) at baseline in cases compared to controls. After adjustment for age and BMI, let-7b-5p was negatively associated with odds for developing MDD (OR = 0.33, p = 0.03, 95% CI = 0.12–0.91). Moreover, let-7b-5p expression levels showed a trend over time with larger differences between cases and controls for the earlier cases (MDD diagnosis <2 years from baseline) than MDD cases developed later (MDD diagnosis 2–5 years from baseline). Conclusions These findings show that lower plasma levels of let-7b-5p are associated with a higher future risk of MDD. Results need to be validated in a large cohort to examine its potential as a peripheral biomarker for MDD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 4104
Author(s):  
Agata M. Grzegorzewska ◽  
Mariusz S. Wiglusz ◽  
Jerzy Landowski ◽  
Katarzyna Jakuszkowiak-Wojten ◽  
Wiesław J. Cubała ◽  
...  

The co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders in people with epilepsy (PWE) is not well documented or studied. Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most frequent comorbid disorders in PWE. In this paper, we characterized the rates of multiple psychiatric disorder comorbidity by reanalyzing data from a study sample of PWE. A total of 96 outpatient PWE completed the self-report symptom scale, and were diagnosed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) Axis I disorders (SCID-I). For analyses, patients were assigned to a comprehensive diagnostic group of anxiety and depressive disorders. In order to determine comorbidity across psychiatric diagnoses for the DSM-IV categories, Pearson’s chi-squared test (χ2) was used. In the study sample, eight patients (8.3% of the study sample, n = 96) had comorbid major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. When looking at comorbidity of each diagnosis separately, it was determined that 50% of individuals with an anxiety disorder had comorbid Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 38% patients with MDD had comorbid anxiety disorder. This finding encourages a more systematic reporting of psychiatric prevalence data in epilepsy, especially taking into account the high ratio of multiple comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders in PWE.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Walther ◽  
Anne Mackens-Kiani ◽  
Julian Eder ◽  
Maik Herbig ◽  
Christoph Herold ◽  
...  

Abstract Background. Pathophysiological landmarks of depressive disorders are chronic low-grade inflammation and elevated glucocorticoid output. Both can potentially interfere with cell membrane bending and cell function, suggesting altered cell morpho-rheological properties like cell deformability and other cell mechanical features in depressive disorders. Method. We performed a cross-sectional case-control study using image-based morpho-rheological characterization of unmanipulated blood samples facilitating real-time deformability cytometry (RT-DC). Sixty-nine pre-screened individuals at high-risk for depressive disorders and 70 matched healthy controls were included and clinically evaluated by Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Facilitating deep learning on blood cell images, major blood cell types were classified and morpho-rheological parameters such as cell size and cell deformability of every individual cell was quantified. Results. We found peripheral blood cells to be more deformable in patients with depressive disorders compared to controls, while cell size was not affected. Lifetime persistent depressive disorder was associated with an increased cell deformability in monocytes and neutrophils, while in current persistent depressive disorder erythrocytes deformed more. Lymphocytes were more deformable in current major depressive disorder, while for lifetime major depressive disorder no differences could be identified. Conclusions. This is the first study analyzing morpho-rheological properties of entire blood cells and highlighting depressive disorders and in particular persistent depressive disorders to be associated with increased blood cell deformability. While all major blood cells tend to be more deformable, lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils are mostly affected. This indicates that immune cell mechanical changes occur in depressive disorders, which might be predictive for persistent immune response.


1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (05) ◽  
pp. 0949-0954 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Prins ◽  
F R Lues ◽  
Y Y van der Hoek ◽  
J J.P Kastelein ◽  
B N Bouma ◽  
...  

SummaryElevated plasma levels of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] represent a significant independent risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Interindividual levels of apo(a) vary over 1000-fold and are mainly due to inheritance that is linked to the locus of the apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)] gene. The apo(a) gene encodes multiple repeats of a sequence exhibiting up to 85% DNA sequence homology with plasminogen kringle IV (K.IV), a lysine binding domain. In our search for sequence polymorphisms in the K.IV coding domain, we identified a polymorphism predicting a Thr→Pro substitution located at amino acid position 12 of kringle IV type 8 of apo(a). The functional and clinical significance of this polymorphism was analysed in a case-control study and by comparing the in vitro lysine binding characteristics of the two Lp(a) subtypes.The case-control study (involving 153 subjects having symptomatic atherosclerosis and 153 age and gender matched normolipidemic controls) revealed an overall allele frequency for the Thr12-→Pro substitution in kringle IV type 8 of 14% and a negative association between presence of the Pro12-subtype and symptomatic atherosclerosis (p <0.03). The in vitro lysine binding studies, using Lp(a) isolated from subjects homozygous for either Thr12 or Pro12 in K.IV type 8, revealed comparable lysine-Sepharose binding fractions for the two subtypes. The binding affinity (Kd) for immobilised plasmin degraded des- AA-fibrin (DesafibTM-X) was also comparable for the two subtypes, however a decreased maximal attainable binding (Bmax) for immobilised desafibTM-X was observed for the Pro12-subtype Lp(a).


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