rome and Depressive-Disorder--Major

Research has demonstrated that patients with insomnia are at an increased risk of experiencing suicidal ideation and/or making a suicide attempt.. To evaluate the relation between insomnia and suicidal behaviour.. To examine factors associated with a diagnosis of insomnia in patients admitted to an Emergency Department (ED) and assessed by the psychiatrist in charge.. Participants were 843 patients consecutively admitted to the ED of Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome, between January 2010 and December 2011. All patients admitted were referred to a psychiatrist. A clinical interview based on the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and a semi-structured interview was conducted. Patients were asked about 'ongoing' suicidal ideation or plans for suicide.. Forty-eight percent of patients received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD) or an anxiety disorder; whereas, 17.1% were diagnosed with Schizophrenia or other non-affective psychosis. Patients with insomnia (compared to patients without insomnia) more frequently had a diagnosis of BD (23.9% vs. 12.4%) or MDD (13.3% vs. 9.5%; p < 0.001). Moreover, patients with insomnia less frequently had attempted suicide in the past 24 h (5.3% vs. 9.5%; p < 0.05) as compared with other patients, but those patients with insomnia who attempted suicide more frequently used a violent method (64.3% vs. 23.6%; p < 0.01) compared to other suicide attempters.. Our results do not support an association between insomnia and suicidal behaviour. However, suicide attempters with insomnia more frequently used violent methods, and this phenomenon should be taken into serious consideration by clinicians.

Topics: Bipolar Disorder; Depressive Disorder, Major; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Rome; Schizophrenia; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide, Attempted

To verify the hypothesis that suicide attempts are associated with lower serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels of patients with mood disorders, 26 patients with mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder) were admitted after a medically serious suicide attempt to the emergency department and then hospitalized in the psychiatric unit of the Sant' Andrea Hospital (Rome, Italy). Controls were 87 patients who had not made a recent suicide attempt. Attempters and nonattempters did not differ in the levels of serum cholesterol or triglycerides. Indeed, attempters had nonsignificantly higher serum levels of cholesterol and lower serum levels of triglycerides. The use of biologic indicators such as levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides in the prediction of suicide risk in mood disorders was not fully supported from this small sample.

Topics: Adult; Bipolar Disorder; Cholesterol; Depressive Disorder, Major; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Department, Hospital; Reference Values; Resuscitation; Risk Factors; Rome; Statistics as Topic; Suicide, Attempted; Triglycerides

The letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 Bc), the Roman statesman, lawyer, orator and author, were analysed as part of a larger study that systematically examined ancient Greek and Roman literature to recover descriptions of mental illness. A degree of necessary caution was exercised, but the wealth of material revealed in the letters about Cicero's physical and emotional state enable a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder to be made with some certainty according to the DSM-IV-TR. Cicero appears to have experienced increasingly severe bouts of suicidal depression that seriously impaired his relationships with his friends, family and political colleagues, and possibly shortened his life. His last depressive episode following the death of his daughter Tullia is addressed here in some detail.

Topics: Bereavement; Correspondence as Topic; Depressive Disorder, Major; Famous Persons; Government; History, Ancient; Humans; Male; Rome