Roger Cohen has written a moving Op-Ed piece in which he describes the way in which a recent suicide in the Phoenix airport transported him back to his own mother’s decades long battle with suicidal thoughts and attempts.
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NY Times: Short but Troubled Life Ended in Shooting and Suicide
October 12, 2007
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This NYT article about 14 year-old boy who died on Wednesday after critically wounding a teacher and classmates, is a case study in risk for adolescent suicide. Abuse/neglect history, legal trouble, access to weapons, social misfit, recent disciplinary action at school. The temporal proximity of his older brother’s arrest is also striking…again pointing to [...]
Read moreReminder from the bridge: Suicidal individuals are full of ambivalence
September 28, 2007
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Today Mike Hogan, Ph.D., the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health honored RNN-TV and the NYS Bridge authority for their work in suicide prevention. The bridge authority put up signs and installed lifeline phones with direct link to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. For clinicians assessing and managing suicide risk, the [...]
Read moreReminder from the headlines: Suicide not just about depression
August 28, 2007
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The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Virginia Tech shooter had an anxiety disorder as a child. I don’t want to say much more about that, and I don’t know enough about Seung Hui Cho to know whether this did or did not play a role in his actions in April. But such news can [...]
Read moreThoughts about SAD PERSONS Screen
August 27, 2007
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I’ve gotten a few questions from colleagues and trainees lately about using the SADPERSONS screen. Most recently, a colleague pointed me to an article in Psychiatric Times titled, “APA: Simple Screen Improves Suicide Risk Assessment.” The topic seems worthy of a post to think through both the appeal and risks of the SADPERSONS scale. For [...]
Read moreCTL censored in China
August 23, 2007
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Thanks to a post by Dr. X, I discovered that this blog is banned in China–at least according to the Great Firewall of China, a site that purports to test any URL to see if it is blocked in China. I’m interested to know how sites make the blacklist. That there must be a keyword [...]
Read moreOwner of Chinese Toy Factory Dies – New York Times
August 14, 2007
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Almost nothing is known about this factory owner, so we should be careful about what lessons we draw. But this news is a sad and startling reminder that job loss and financial pressure (here mixed with public humiliation) raises risk of suicide. Owner of Chinese Toy Factory Commits Suicide – New York Times.
Read moreMurder-Suicide In Ireland
July 19, 2007
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Ireland has experienced a string of murder-suicides of different types over the past 18-months. The most recent of these events, which occurred Tuesday, prompted this Statement From The Irish Association Of Suicidology, as reported in Medical News Today. In scanning the Irish Examiner today, I ran across this article advocating for funding psychological autopsies in [...]
Read moreTwo Large Studies Show Decline In Suicide Attempts With Antidepressant Treatment
July 11, 2007
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More data coming in to balance concerns created by the FDA black-box warning: Two Large Studies Show Decline In Suicide Attempts With Antidepressant Treatment Related posts: Genetic Variations May Predispose Some Men To Suicidal Thoughts During Treatment For Depression FDA ammends recommendation for antidepressant blackbox warning Unintended consequences of antidepressant black box warning?
Read moreGenetic Variations May Predispose Some Men To Suicidal Thoughts During Treatment For Depression
June 12, 2007
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Genetic Variations May Predispose Some Men To Suicidal Thoughts During Treatment For Depression Researchers at Harvard/Mass General have contributed some interesting data to the conversation about suicidality and antidepressant treatment. Roy Perlis and colleagues examined available DNA info on patients who had new onset suicidal thoughts after starting drug therapy, and found an interaction effect [...]
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