Psychiatry
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There have been studies about the impact of a suicide on family members and friends, but none to date on a military unit in a combat zone. This is the first description, to my knowledge, of the effects of the suicide of a U. S. ⋯ The effects of the soldier's suicide showed a few similarities to those described in the literature, including stigmatization of the survivors and the stress experienced by the mental health providers. There were additional repercussions that have not been previously described, including the impact on the soldier's peers within his unit and other soldiers on the base, the need for medical evacuation from Iraq of soldiers following the event, and the reported stress on the medical staff due to the attempted resuscitation of someone known to them. Future research is needed to understand the impact of a suicide on the survivors in a deployed military setting and to establish best practices for postvention strategies.
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Chronic pain may be internalized and integrated into the sufferer's object-relations, thereby influencing sufferer's depression. To examine this, fifty-five women suffering from chronic pain were assessed as to their pain-personification, pain intensity, depression, anxiety, and pain related distress. ⋯ Controlling for level of pain intensity, we found that the PPQ predicts depression, illness intrusiveness, and pain-related distress, but not anxiety. These findings encourage an object-relations approach to the understanding and treatment of depression in chronic illness.