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Andrej Marusic

Publications and source records attributed to Andrej Marusic.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Comparison of psychiatric inpatient suicides with suicides completed in the surrounding community.

We compared main characteristics of 58 (22 male and 36 female) psychiatric inpatients that committed suicide in the psychiatric hospital with all 1261 suicides (956 male and 305 female) that occurred outside hospitals in the same health district of Slovenia, all these in the period between 1985 and 1993. The independent t-test and cross-tabulation were used to compare the two groups on age, sex, marital status and suicide method profile. It appeared that female suicide is much more frequent in the psychiatric inpatients' group than in others. Only male psychiatric inpatients' suicides are younger than other suicide victims. Psychiatric inpatients use methods like jumping from high places and drowning more often than do others, which goes in line with the availability of methods of suicide. Apparently, the studied hospital has some wards on the third floor and majority of acute wards are located by the river. However, psychiatric inpatients do not differ from other suicide victims on marital status. Higher suicide rates in men compared with women in the population, but not in psychiatric inpatients, could be explained by the presence of so-called atypical, clinically unrecognized depression in the male population.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2002

Apparent higher brain weight in suicide victims: possible reasons.

In 2000 we tested previously reported findings by Salib and Tadros that brain weight of fatal self-harm victims is higher than of those who died of natural causes. Our results were based on data from 15 suicides and 15 deaths of other causes. Data included matching variables of age, sex, time between death and postmortem examination, and temperature of the surrounding environment. The exploratory variables were brain weight and method of death. No significant difference was found between the brain weights of suicides and others. On the other hand, some differences were obtained for different suicide methods, which also differed in the temperature of the environment, this being lower for the group of suicides that occurred outdoors (around or below 0 degrees C). Once we excluded all the outdoor cases and controls, a significantly higher brain weight was obtained for suicide cases. These and previous results are intriguing and require explanation. Respirator brain syndrome as described by Moseley, Molinari, and Walker in 1976 may provide only a partial explanation. Another possible suggestion is that higher brain weight in suicide victims may be related to previously demonstrated increased amygdala blood flow and subsequent amygdala enlargement due to the increased processing of emotional information.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Constructing a coronary scale for ischemic heart disease: case-control study.

AIM: To develop a scale measuring proneness to ischemic heart disease. METHODS: Ischemic heart disease was angiographically documented in 187 men. In 187 matched controls the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease was ruled out by examination of medical records and history data, and when necessary, clinical examination and specialized diagnostic procedures. Item analysis of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) was performed on 100 men with ischemic heart disease and their male controls, and then a replication study was performed on the remaining 87 pairs. RESULTS: A Coronary Scale was constructed from 8 EPQ items significantly and consistently different between the groups. Most of these items were drawn from the neuroticism scale. The Coronary Scale yielded significant correlations with emotionally saturated psychological variables. CONCLUSION: Coronary Scale may be useful in everyday practice to select patients with ischemic heart disease and those who are at higher risk to develop disease. It could be used for detecting a high-risk group of emotionally labile subjects to concentrate efforts for prevention of coronary disease.

Adaptation, Psychological↗