Suicide prevention: A study of patients' views

BackgroundSuicide prevention strategies are usually formulated without seeking the views of people with psychiatric illnesses.AimsTo establish what helped patients with severe psychiatric illness when they felt suicidal.MethodA semi-structured interview was constructed following transcribed interviews with 12 patients. This was administered to 59 out-patients with serious and enduring mental illness, focusing on factors they found helpful or unhelpful when at their most despairing.ResultsThree-quarters of patients were in contact with psychiatric services when feeling at their lowest, and this contact was generally deemed to be helpful. Social networks were considered just as helpful as psychiatric services by the half of patients who discussed their feelings with friends or relatives. Religious beliefs and affiliations were helpful. Negative influences included the media and the stigma of psychiatric illness.ConclusionsEfforts at suicide prevention might usefully focus on enhancing patients' social networks, increasing the likelihood of early contact with psychiatric services and decreasing the stigma attached to psychiatric illness. Larger studies of patients exposed to different service models would be informative.

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Movies and mental illness: A psychiatry elective for third year pharmacy students

Mental Health Clinician ◽

10.9740/mhc.n143595 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (10) ◽

pp. 314-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cherry W. Jackson

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Psychiatric Illness ◽

Problem Based Learning ◽

Signs And Symptoms ◽

Pharmacy Students ◽

Know How ◽

Psychiatric Illnesses ◽

Psychiatric Setting ◽

Elective Course

Psychiatric illnesses are common and pharmacists need to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of the illnesses and know how they are appropriately treated. Not all pharmacy students will have an opportunity to intern in a psychiatric setting during their fourth year, and there is not adequate time in the course of a problem based learning (PBL) therapeutics curriculum to teach many of the psychiatric illnesses and their treatment. This article describes an elective course in psychiatry offered to third-year pharmacy students, which incorporates the viewing of movies and reading of books related to psychiatric illness, in order to allow students to develop a working knowledge of basic and advanced therapeutic issues related to psychiatry and psychopharmacology.

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Pathways to Suicide Among People With a Diagnosed Mental Illness in Victoria, Australia

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000611 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 105-113

Author(s):

Angela Clapperton ◽

Stuart Newstead ◽

Charlotte Frew ◽

Lyndal Bugeja ◽

Jane Pirkis

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Incomplete Information ◽

Life Events ◽

Suicide Prevention ◽

Prevention Strategies ◽

Life Trajectories ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Data Source

Abstract. Background: People who have mental illness are at increased risk of suicide. Therefore, identifying "typical" trajectories to suicide in this population has the potential to improve the effectiveness of suicide prevention strategies. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the pathways to suicide among a sample of Victorians with a diagnosed mental illness. Method: Victorian Suicide Register (VSR) data were used to generate life charts and identify typical life trajectories to suicide among 50 Victorians. Results: Two distinct pathways to suicide were identified: (1) where diagnosis of mental illness appeared to follow life events/stressors; and (2) where diagnosis appeared to precede exposure to life events/stressors. Some events acted as distal factors related to suicide, other events were more common as proximal factors, and still others appeared to act as both distal and proximal factors. Limitations: The data source might be biased because of the potential for incomplete information, or alternatively, the importance of some factors in a person's life may have been overstated. Conclusion: Strategies to reduce suicide need to consider the chronology of exposure to stressors in people's lives and clearly need to be different depending on whether proximal or distal risk factors are the target of a given strategy or intervention.

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Depiction of Mental Illness in Film and Association with Financial and Critical Success

10.1101/2020.10.20.20215707 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shaan Kamal ◽

Osama El-Gabalawy ◽

Nathan Zhao ◽

Jelena MacLeod

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Psychiatric Illness ◽

American Culture ◽

Health Issues ◽

Critical Success ◽

Mental Health Issues ◽

Time Period ◽

Media Portrayal ◽

The Media

AbstractFilm and cinema are an important part of American culture and discourse. In recent years, there have been increasing discussions around the media portrayal of suicide and psychiatric illness and its subsequent impact on prejudice towards individuals with mental health issues. To date, there is no published work quantifying the depiction of mental illness in film. In this work we use movie plot descriptions to identify movies that depict mental illness and compare their financial and critical success to all movies released during the same time period.

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The psychiatry of children aged 0–4: advances in assessment, diagnosis and treatment

BJPsych Advances ◽

10.1192/apt.bp.114.014100 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 377-386 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David Foreman

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Preschool Children ◽

Early Intervention ◽

Cost Effectiveness ◽

Secondary Care ◽

Psychiatric Illness ◽

Psychiatric Services ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Age Group ◽

Very Young Children

SummaryMental illness in very young children is relatively rare and the number of 0- to 4-year-olds seen in secondary care psychiatric services has recently declined. Conceptualisation of mental illness in this age group is shifting towards a model that views disorders as part of the wider spectrum of diagnoses, rather than distinct, developmentally specific conditions. This article discusses the epidemiology of psychiatric illness in preschool children, evaluates assessment tools that have only recently been validated for use in secondary care and considers evidence of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of early intervention using treatments encompassing pharmacological, psychological and social approaches.

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Psychiatric Illness in Patients with Persistent Somatisation

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.166.1.93 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 166 (1) ◽

pp. 93-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Per Fink

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Broad Spectrum ◽

Psychiatric Illness ◽

Psychiatric Services ◽

Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽

Mental Health Care System ◽

Icd 10

BackgroundThis study explores the incidence and nature of mental illness among persistent somatisers, and analyses their use of mental health services.MethodIndividuals with at least ten admissions to non-psychiatric departments during an 8-year period were studied. Persistent somatisers (n = 56) were compared with other frequent users (n = 57) of non-psychiatric services.ResultsOf the persistent somatisers, 82% had been examined by a psychiatrist at least once (median, 3 times). Sixteen per cent were mentally retarded, 48% were dependent on alcohol or drugs, and 48% had DSM–III–R personality disorder. The most prevalent ICD–10 diagnoses were anxiety states (54%), depressions (30%), phobias (18%) and psychoses (20%).ConclusionsPersistent somatisation is associated with severe mental illness and a broad spectrum of heterogeneous psychiatric diagnoses and syndromes. Persistent somatisers impose a serious burden on the mental health care system.

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Somatoform disorders: severe psychiatric illnesses neglected by psychiatrists

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.179.1.11 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 179 (1) ◽

pp. 11-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 73

Author(s):

Christopher Bass ◽

Robert Peveler ◽

Allan House

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Health Service ◽

Somatoform Disorders ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Psychiatric Services ◽

High Quality ◽

High Quality Research ◽

Quality Research ◽

Psychiatric Illnesses ◽

Research And Teaching

BackgroundSomatoform disorders have few peers in terms of personal morbidity and cost to the health service, yet many psychiatrists train without any experience of them.AimsTo review the prevalence, disability and economic burden of somatoform disorders, and to explore the reasons why they are neglected by psychiatrists.MethodA selective review of the key literature.ResultsPsychiatrists' current preoccupation with so-called ‘serious mental illness’ gives somatoform disorders low priority. Some health planners have erroneously equated severity with diagnosis rather than level of need and disability. As a consequence the development of psychiatric services has been neglected.ConclusionsGreater recognition of the importance of somatoform disorders will only occur if high quality research and teaching receive priority, and if the Royal Colleges continue to press for increasing public awareness of their importance. Services should be driven by clinical need rather than diagnosis.

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Sati

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910.26.2.73 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 73-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Dinesh Bhugra

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Psychiatric Disorders ◽

Indian Subcontinent ◽

Cultural Factors ◽

Role Expectations ◽

Prevention Strategies ◽

Social Causation ◽

Gender Role Expectations ◽

Good Wife ◽

And Gender

Abstract. Sati as an act of ritual suicide has been reported from the Indian subcontinent, especially among the Hindus, for several centuries. Although legally proscribed, these acts occur even now in modern India. The principle behind such acts has been put forward as the principle of good wife. There is little evidence to suggest that women who commit this act suffer from a formal mental illness. Cultural factors and gender role expectations play a significant role in the act and its consequences. Using recent examples, this paper illustrates the cultural factors, which may be seen as contributing to the act of suicide. Other factors embedded in the act also emphasize that not all suicides have underlying psychiatric disorders and clinicians must take social causation into account while preparing any prevention strategies.

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