Psychiatry research
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Psychiatry research · Jun 2017
Differentiating suicide decedents who died using firearms from those who died using other methods.
Studies have documented a link between gun ownership and suicide, but little is known about characteristics of those most likely to use a gun in a suicide attempt rather than alternative methods. We examined which factors differentiate suicide decedents who died using a gun from those who died by other methods. We further examined whether such findings are consistent within the subcomponent of our larger sample comprised entirely of gun owning suicide decedents. ⋯ Within the subsample of gun owning suicide decedents, a greater proportion of decedents who stored guns at home and in unsecure locations died from self-inflected gunshot wounds. These findings add clarity to the relationship between firearm ownership and death by suicide at the individual level. Furthermore, these findings are consistent with the notion that means safety implementation may represent a vital suicide prevention tool.
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The aim of the study was to investigate dynamic thiol/disulfide (SH/SS) homeostasis in untreated schizophrenia. ⋯ SH and ToSH amounts were found to be insufficient in untreated schizophrenia patients. Additionally, according to the results of the study, thiol/disulfide homeostasis was also disturbed by a shift to the disulfide bond formation side. This might affect the neurotransmission processes, which are known to be related with many symptoms observed in schizophrenia. The replacement of the thiol gap and the reduction of excess SS amounts might have a positive effect in supporting therapy for schizophrenia patients.
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Psychiatry research · Apr 2017
Negative metacognitive beliefs moderate the influence of perceived stress and anxiety in long-term anxiety.
Metacognitive theory of emotional disorders (Matthews and Wells, 1994; Wells, 2009) suggests that metacognitive beliefs can play a causal role in the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms. In this prospective study, we examine the relationships between metacognitive beliefs, perceived stress and anxiety in a non-clinical sample. Participants were 135 undergraduate students who completed a battery of questionnaire at two time points (3- months apart). ⋯ However, moderation analyses demonstrated negative beliefs about uncontrollability and danger prospectively moderated the relationship between perceived stress and Time 2 anxiety. Negative metacognitive beliefs also interacted with baseline anxiety to predict the change in anxiety symptoms. The results confirm metacognitions play a causal role in anxiety and have implications for cognitive models and the treatment of anxiety.
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Psychiatry research · Mar 2017
Humor styles moderate borderline personality traits and suicide ideation.
The way individuals use humor to interact interpersonally has been associated with general personality, depression, and suicidality. Certain humor styles may moderate the risk for suicide ideation (SI) in individuals who are high in specific risk factors (e.g., thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness). Previous research suggests a relationship between humor styles and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and an increased risk of suicidality and suicide completion in individuals with BPD. ⋯ It was hypothesized that BPD traits would be positively correlated with negative humor styles and negatively correlated with positive humor styles, and that humor styles would significantly moderate BPD traits and SI. Results showed that BPD traits were negatively correlated with self-enhancing humor styles and positively correlated with self-defeating humor styles, but that they were not significantly correlated with affiliative or aggressive humor styles. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that the affiliative, self-enhancing, and self-defeating humor styles significantly moderated BPD traits and SI, while the aggressive humor style did not.
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Psychiatry research · Mar 2017
Facial emotion recognition among typically developing young children: A psychometric validation of a subset of NimStim stimuli.
We evaluated the psychometric properties of NimStim taking into account the effects of chronological age on the ability of typically developing young children (aged 2-6 years old) to recognize basic facial expressions (i.e., happy, sad, angry, and fearful). We also examined the psychometric sufficiency of NimStim under race-matched and -mismatched facial emotion stimuli. ⋯ Results of the current study represent the first psychometric analysis of reliability and validity for using NimStim pictures depicting happy, sad, angry, and fearful with typically developing children aged 2-6 years old as well as examining race-matched versus -mismatched stimuli. Analyses revealed the psychometric sufficiency of a subset of pictures depicting happy, sad, angry, and fearful from NimStim among young children across race matched and mismatched stimuli.