Association between physical multimorbidity and suicidal ideation in young adults with obesity

Obesity is considered as one of the entrance point of multimorbidity and has an impact on physical and mental health. While some evidence points out to a possible relationship between obesity, multimorbidity and suicidal spectrum, little provide a direct association. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the co-occurring effect of both multimorbidity and obesity on suicidal ideation. Methods A cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey data was conducted. A weighted sample of young adults (18 to 30 years-old) with obesity, from the province of Quebec, of the 2005 (n=394) and 2015–2016 (n=295) cycles were investigated independently. Multimorbidity, suicidal ideation, and health behaviours were self-reported. Results The prevalence of physical multimorbidity was 15% in 2005 and 18% in 2015–2016. Adjusted logistic regressions showed an association between multimorbidity and suicidal ideation (2005: OR 3.59, 95% CI 1.89-6.81; 2015–2016: OR 3.72, 95% CI 1.88-7.36). Among covariates, the significant association of sex (OR 1.98; 95% CI 1.16-3.37) and educational status (OR 3.27; 95% CI 1.49-7.18) in the 2005 cycle, were not replicated in the 2015–2016 cycle (education: OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.46-1.87; sex (OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.48-1.69). Finally, our results suggest no consistent association between health behaviours and suicidal ideation.Conclusion Multimorbidity seems to be associated with suicidal ideation among those with obesity. Attention should be given to multimorbidity management within obesity-related interventions for young people, as the development of suicidal ideation may also be prevented.

The Role of General Practitioners in Suicide Prevention—What You Said and Did then Actually Saved My Life

Background: General practitioners (GPs) have an important role in the prevention of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to explore their views and experiences in identifying and assessing suicidal ideation. Methods: Ten GPs were recruited through convenience sampling based on accessibility, interest and willingness to participate. In-depth interviews were carried out, and the results were transcribed verbatim. Aspects of experiences with suicidal patients emerged through the thematic analysis process. Results: The GPs described the varied clinical picture when patients presented in their office. How they identified depressive symptoms apart from originally somatic complaints included forming a trusting relationship and addressing suicide ideation. They described customized interventions as well as obstacles and factors that facilitated communication, including time, their own personal traits, patient’s disclosure and organizational barriers. Conclusions: The levels of the suicidal process among patients in general practice vary greatly. GPs adjust their appraisals to profoundly understand and intervene to prevent a crisis of escalation into subsequent suicidal behavior.

Online Suicide Identification in the Framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)

Background: Suicide is a serious social problem. Substantial efforts have been made to prevent suicide for many decades. The internet has become an important arena for suicide prevention and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, only one study has analyzed suicidal comments online from the perspective of rhetorical structure with incomplete rhetorical relations. We aimed to examine the rhetorical differences between Chinese social media users who died by suicide and those without suicidal ideation. Methods: The posts of 15 users who died by suicide and 15 not suffering from suicide ideation were annotated by five postgraduates with expertise in analyzing suicidal posts based on rhetorical structure theory (RST). Group differences were compared via a chi-square test. Results: Results showed that users who died by suicide posted significantly more posts and used more rhetorical relations. Moreover, the two groups displayed significant differences in 17 out of 23 rhetorical relations. Limitations: Because this study is largely exploratory and tentative, caution should be taken in generalizing our findings. Conclusions: Our results expand the methods of RST to the online suicidal identification field. There are implications for population-based suicide prevention by combining rhetorical structures with context analysis.

Examining the effects of psychiatric symptoms, brain injury symptoms, and low self-control on the placement of inmates in administrative segregation and their risk for suicidal ideation

Objective: In this study, we are interested in understanding the predictive effects of psychiatric symptoms, brain injury symptoms, and criminological factors on inmate (N=270) risk for placement in administrative segregation and their expression of suicidal ideation. Methods: Using a case-control design, this study seeks to understand the psychological and behavioral risk-profiles of inmates being placed in administrative segregation and those with suicidal ideation. More specifically, we are trying to understand the magnitude of the effect that psychiatric symptoms, brain injury symptoms, and low self-control characteristics has on the risk of inmates being placed in administrative segregation and their risk for suicidal ideation. Results: We found that factor scores for psychiatric symptoms and low self-control levels significantly increase the risk of inmates expressing suicidal ideation when compared to alternative predictive factors.

The Role of General Practitioners in Suicide Prevention-What you Said and Did then Actually Saved my Life

Background: General Practitioners (GP) have an important role in the prevention of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to explore their views and experiences of identifying and assessing suicidal ideation. Methods: Ten GPs were recruited through convenience sampling, based on accessibility, interest and willingness to participate. In-depth interviews were carried out and results transcribed ver-batim. Aspects of experiences with suicidal patients emerged through the thematic analyses process. Results: The GPs described the varied clinical picture when patients presented in their office. How they identified depressive symptoms apart from originally somatic complaints, formed a trusting relationship and addressed suicide ideation. They described customized interventions as well as obstacles and factors that facilitated communication: time, own personal traits, pa-tient’s disclosure and organizational barriers. Conclusions: The levels of the suicidal process among patients in general practice vary greatly. GPs adjust their appraisals to profundity understand and intervene in order to prevent a crisis to escalate into subsequent suicidal behavior.

Idea Generation Mechanisms: Comparing the influence of classification, combination, building on others, and stimulation mechanisms on ideation effectiveness.

Ideation methods have been extensively studied, and several ideation methods can be beneficial in different contexts, but it is not understood what makes a specific method work. Previous work has shown that all the ideation methods comprise of 25 fundamental ideation mechanisms in two categories: idea implementation and idea promoting mechanisms. In this study, we try to understand how individual mechanisms affect idea generation outcomes. We chose four idea promoting mechanisms: two from the process category (Classification & Combination) and two from the idea sources category (Building on Others and Stimulation). These mechanisms were selected as they are examples of comparable mechanisms that could easily be integrated into any other ideation method. We conducted four experiments and assessed idea quantity, novelty, and originality. Our study showed that the chosen mechanism increased ideation performance. For the most part, the mechanisms are statistically equivalent, but we found evidence that classification outperforms combination in a simple ideation exercise. We also found the building on others can be more useful than the type of stimulation used in engineering concept generation, but the difference was not found in a simple ideation exercise. Overall, we find evidence that all mechanisms improve ideation effectiveness and could be incorporated into any ideation method, but further studies are needed to build more comprehensive understanding

Deconstruction of Idea Generation Methods Into a Framework of Creativity Mechanisms

Creative ideas are a central part of design thinking, whether solving engineering problems, generating interesting art, as well as developing successful products and innovations. Idea generation methods are a well-researched topic, and there is significant research that focuses on specific idea generation methods and how they perform. Furthermore, several method classifications have been suggested to help understand the cognitive mechanisms involved in creative ideation as well as differences between methods. Yet, the discourse is usually on which ideation method outperforms another or how to improve an ideation method rather than the elements, rules, constraints, and activities that comprise ideation methods. In this study, 88 well-documented idea generation methods are reviewed and analyzed. We find all analyzed methods consist of 25 basic mechanisms. The mechanisms are discussed and classified into idea promoting and implementation mechanisms. We suggest that rather than focusing research only on methods, there should be a parallel track of research on these mechanisms and their interactions to help increase our understanding of creativity methods, add understanding for practitioners on how to get the best advantages out of creativity methods, and finally improve the way that practical creativity is approached in education.

A Brief Burnout Evaluation Scale (BBES) as a potential tool to prevent collapse of the health care task force during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where overloaded health systems seem inevitable, there is a need for reliable, conceptually adequate, and easily applied measurement tools to identify health professionals at risk. Objective: to present the preliminary psychometric properties of a Brief Burnout Evaluation Scale (BBES) and its association with important outcomes, i.e., moderate to severe depression and suicidal ideation. Methods: The BBES has 4 Likert-type items and was tested as part of a cross-sectional study that included 401 medical students. Reliability analysis and validity studies were performed. Results: In the parallel analysis, two factors were extracted, explaining 84.4% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.78, showing high internal consistency. Considering a cut-off point of 12, the odds ratio for moderate to severe depression was 3.01 (CI 1.7-5.22; p<0.001) and for last month suicidal ideation 2.96 (CI 1.6-5.48). Conclusion: The results suggest good psychometric characteristics for the BBES, thus reinforcing its utility as an assessment tool for evaluating the well-being or distress of health professionals. It carries with it the potential to implement early interventions and to prevent the descent into burnout so common today in the health care task force during the pandemic.