Prevention of suicidal behavior with lithium treatment in patients with recurrent mood disorders

Suicidal behavior is more prevalent in bipolar disorders than in other psychiatric illnesses. In the last thirty years evidence has emerged to indicate that long-term treatment of bipolar disorder patients with lithium may reduce risk of suicide and attempts, with possibly similar benefits in recurrent major depressive disorder. We review and update selected research literature […]

Sleep and mood disorders among youth

Research suggests that sleep plays an important role in the development, progression, and maintenance of mood disorder symptoms among children and adolescents.1-4 While most of the extant research focuses on the relationship between insomnia and mood disorders, other sleep disorders such as delayed sleep phase, inadequate total sleep duration and bedtime resistance in younger children may […]

Individuals who develop drug-resistant epilepsy within a year after initial diagnosis have higher burden of mental and physical diseases one-year prior to epilepsy diagnosis as compared to those whose seizures were controlled during the same interval

Introduction Epilepsy is a neurological disease characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures and its impact on biological, cognitive, psychological, and social outcomes. An unmet need for finding effective treatment options exists. Identifying medical diagnoses present prior to a diagnosis of epilepsy is an important step in increasing our understanding of how people with epilepsy may respond […]

Evening chronotype and suicide: Exploring neuroinflammation and psychopathological dimensions as possible bridging factors–a narrative review

A chronotype is generally defined as the variability of the phase angle of entrainment, while the latter reflects the relationship between the timing of a certain rhythm (e.g., the sleep–wake cycle) and the timing of an external temporal cue. Individuals can be placed on a spectrum from “morning types” (M types) to “evening types” (E […]

Mood disorders and aggressive traits mediate effects of reported childhood adversity on suicide attempt risk

Background Childhood adversity (CA) is linked to suicidal behavior as well as to mood disorders and aggressive traits. This raises the possibility that depression and aggressive traits mediate the relationship of childhood adversity to suicide risk. Moreover, it is not known if they operate independently or interactively. Aims To determine whether, and how, mood disorders […]

Suicidal behavior in mood disorders: Response to pharmacological treatment

Suicidal behavior is strongly associated with depression, especially if accompanied by behavioral activation, dysphoria, or agitation. It may respond to some treatments, but the design of scientifically sound, ethical trials to test for therapeutic effects on suicidal behavior is highly challenging. In bipolar disorder, and possibly also unipolar major depression, an underprescribed medical intervention with […]

Clinical characteristics and prescriptions associated with a 2-year course of rapid cycling and euthymia in bipolar disorder: A multicenter treatment survey for bipolar disorder in psychiatric clinics

Objective: In patients with bipolar disorder (BD), rapid cycling (RC) presents a risk for a more severe illness, while euthymia (EUT) has a better prognosis. This study focused on the progression of RC and EUT, which are contrasting phenomenology, and aimed to clarify the influence of patient backgrounds and prescription patterns on these different progressions, using […]

Suicidality and mood: The impact of trends, seasons, day of the week, and time of day on explicit and implicit cognitions among an online community sample

Decades of research have established seasonality effects on completed and attempted suicides, with rates increasing in spring. Little advancements have been made to explain this phenomenon, with most studies focusing almost exclusively on the number of suicide attempts and deaths. Using more than six years of data collected among a US, UK, and Canadian online […]

Depressed mood prior to death: Implications for precipitating factors of youth suicide

Background: Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth in the United States. Multiple factors have been shown to increase risk for suicidal behavior, including depressed mood. Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine individual characteristics and precipitating circumstances of suicide in youth decedents with and without depressed mood at the time of death. Method: Data from […]

Predisposition for self-destruction? Affective temperaments as a suicide risk factor in patients with mood disorders

Because suicide is overall a relatively rare event, its prediction in individual cases remains very difficult. Suicidal behavior (both fatal and nonfatal) is, however, quite frequent among psychiatric patients who have  contacted different levels of the health-care system some weeks or months before their attempt (Luoma, Martin, & Pearson, 2002). Untreated unipolar or bipolar major […]

Acoustic analysis of speech for screening for suicide risk: Machine learning classifiers for between- and within-person evaluation of suicidality

Background: Assessing a patient’s suicide risk is challenging for health professionals because it depends on voluntary disclosure by the patient and often has limited resources. The application of novel machine learning approaches to determine suicide risk has clinical utility. Objective: This study aimed to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches to assess suicidality based on acoustic […]

The associations between suicide‑related behaviors, prefrontal dysfunction in emotional cognition, and personality traits in mood disorders

Suicide is a serious public health problem, and it is urgent to identify biomarkers associated with suicide to prevent it. We aimed to clarify the association across suicidal behavior, personality traits, and brain activation by emotional stimulation tasks using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in patients with mood disorders. 11 mood disorder patients with a history of […]

Mood stabilizers and risk of all-cause, natural, and suicide mortality in bipolar disorder: A nationwide cohort study

Objectives People with bipolar disorder have an elevated risk of mortality. This study evaluated associations between the use of mood stabilizers and the risks of all-cause mortality, suicide, and natural mortality in a national cohort of people with bipolar disorder. Methods In this nationwide cohort study, we used data from January 1, 2000, to December […]

Dysphoria spectrum in the evaluation of suicide risk: An overview and exploratory study

Background: The aim of the present paper was to summarize the role of dysphoria in the development of suicidality. We performed an exploratory study to evaluate dysphoria dimensions in inpatients suffering from  borderline personality disorder (BPD), mood disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders who were evaluated due to suicidal ideation or suicide attempt. Subjects and methods: […]

Affective states and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI): Results from an ecological momentary assessment study of veterans with NSSI disorder

Background The affective states most strongly associated with nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) remain poorly understood, particularly among veterans. This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine relationships between affect ratings and NSSI urges and behaviors among veterans with NSSI disorder. Methods Participants (N = 40) completed EMA entries via mobile phone for 28 days (3722 total entries). Entries […]

Using machine learning with intensive longitudinal data to predict depression and suicidal ideation among medical interns over time

Background: Use of intensive longitudinal methods (e.g. ecological momentary assessment, passive sensing) and machine learning (ML) models to predict risk for depression and suicide has increased in recent years. However, these studies often vary considerably in length, ML methods used, and sources of data. The present study examined predictive accuracy for depression and suicidal ideation (SI) […]

Mood disorders and aggressive traits mediate effects of reported childhood adversity on suicide attempt risk

Background: Childhood adversity (CA) is linked to suicidal behavior as well as to mood disorders and aggressive traits. This raises the possibility that depression and aggressive traits mediate the relationship of childhood adversity to suicide risk. Moreover, it is not known if they operate independently or interactively. Aims: To determine whether, and how, mood disorders and aggressive […]

Psychosocial risks and benefits of exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes: Current theory and evidence

Concerns have been raised that prolonged exposure to heavy metal music with aggressive themes can increase the risk of aggression, anger, antisocial behaviour, substance use, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression in community and psychiatric populations. Although research often relies on correlational evidence for which causal inferences are not possible, it is often claimed that music with […]

Exploration of mood spectrum symptoms during a major depressive episode: The impact of contrapolarity—Results from a transdiagnostic cluster analysis on an Italian sample of unipolar and bipolar patients

Background: Subthreshold hypomania during a major depressive episode challenges the bipolar-unipolar dichotomy. In our study we employed a cross-diagnostic cluster analysis – to identify distinct subgroups within a cohort of depressed patients. Methods: A k-means cluster analysis- based on the domain scores of the Mood Spectrum Self-Report (MOODS-SR) questionnaire-was performed on a data set of 300 adults […]

Association among early life stress, mood features, hopelessness and suicidal risk in bipolar disorder: The potential contribution of insomnia symptoms

Aim The study aimed to investigate the potential pathways mediating early exposure to stressful events and the clinical manifestations of bipolar disorder (BD), such as severity of mood symptoms, hopelessness and suicidal ideation, focusing on the potential role of insomnia symptoms. Method A sample of 162 adult participants with BD I or II were assessed during depressed phase […]

Hope as a process in understanding positive mood and suicide protection: A test of the broaden-and-build model

Background: According to the broaden-and-build model of positive mood, positive emotions are believed to broaden cognition resources and build psychological resiliency, to help incur positive psychological outcomes. Aim: We examined hope as a potential mediator of the association between positive mood and suicide protection (viz., life satisfaction and reasons for living) in adults. We hypothesized that positive mood […]

Trends in mental illness and suicidality after Hurricane Katrina

A representative sample of 815 pre-hurricane residents of the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was interviewed 5-8 months after the hurricane and again one year later as the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group (CAG). The follow-up survey was carried out to study patterns-correlates of recovery from hurricane-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), broader anxiety-mood disorders, and […]

Quick facts: Mental illness & addiction in Canada [4th ed.]

There is a need in Canada to bring together, a comprehensive, evidence-based document containing important statistics relating to mental illnesses and addictions. The impact on individuals and their families, the healthcare system, the workplace, and the economy, in general, is extremely significant. There is also a need to develop a common understanding of the relationship […]