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Biomedical subjects

I Rossow

Publications and source records attributed to I Rossow.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Shattered childhood: a key issue in suicidal behavior among drug addicts?

AIMS: To assess the relative importance of various adverse childhood experiences for the occurrence of later suicidal behavior in terms of experienced suicide attempts and suicidal ideation among drug addicts, and to assess possible gender differences in these associations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Residential and outpatient treatment units for drug addicts in Norway. PARTICIPANTS: National sample of 800 drug addicts admitted to treatment in 1992-93. MEASUREMENTS: Self-reports of attempted suicide (life-time prevalence) and suicidal ideation (1 month prior to admission). Data collected from structured interviews with therapists. FINDINGS: A total of 38.0% of the drug addicts reported having attempted suicide once or several times; the proportion was higher among those who reported various adverse experiences during childhood (sexual or violent assaults, bullying, parents' alcohol abuse, parents' psychiatric problems, school adjustment problems and own psychiatric problems), and increased with number of areas of such adverse childhood experiences. Forty-two per cent of the clients reported suicidal ideation in the month prior to admission, displaying the same kind of associations with adverse childhood experiences, and also a significant association when controlling for previous suicide attempts. There were relatively small gender differences in self-reported suicidal behavior, the proportion being somewhat higher among women, but only among those with no or few adverse childhood experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported suicidal behavior and ideation among drug addicts is highly prevalent and more so with increasing number of areas of childhood adversities.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Alcohol and homicide: a cross-cultural comparison of the relationship in 14 European countries.

AIMS: To assess an empirical basis for cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons of four aspects of the association between alcohol consumption and homicide: the relative strength of the association, the fraction of homicide rates attributable to alcohol consumption, possible gender differences in the association between consumption and victim rates and possible variations in beverage-specific effects on homicide rates. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Time series analyses on different series of annual aggregate-level data on alcohol sales and homicide rates for the period 1950-95 were performed for each individual country. Estimates were pooled across countries within three regions of alleged differences in drinking pattern: southern Europe, central Europe and northern Europe. FINDINGS: Total alcohol sales were positively and statistically significantly associated with homicide rates in five countries. Beer sales were positively and statistically significantly associated with homicide rates in four countries, wine sales in another two countries, and spirits sales in two countries. The effect of alcohol sales was stronger for male homicide rates than for female homicide rates, and the estimated fraction of homicides that could be attributed to alcohol consumption appeared to be of the same magnitude in the three regions. When estimates were pooled across countries, the strongest association between total sales and homicides was found in the northern European countries and the weakest, but still statistically significant, in the southern European countries. Pooled estimates showed that beer sales were positively and significantly associated with homicide rates in all three European regions, whereas wine sales were positively and moderately associated with homicide rates only in the traditional wine drinking cultures in southern Europe. CONCLUSION: The findings support the hypothesis that homicide rates are influenced by alcohol sales and more so in the northern European countries where the drinking culture is, to a larger extent, characterized by heavy drinking episodes. Moreover, the findings are suggestive of beverage-specific effects on violent behaviour being contingent upon characteristics of the drinking culture.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1999

Balancing on the edge of death: suicide attempts and life-threatening overdoses among drug addicts.

AIMS: Assessment of prevalence of non-fatal overdoses and suicide attempts and predictors of and co-variation between such behaviours among drug addicts. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Inpatient and outpatient treatment units in Norway. PARTICIPANTS: National sample of 2051 drug addicts admitted to treatment in Norway in 1992-93. MEASUREMENTS: Self-reports of suicide attempts and of life-threatening overdoses from structured interviews with therapists. FINDINGS: Almost half (45.5%) the clients reported having experienced one or more life-threatening overdoses. A third (32.7%) reported one or more suicide attempts. Suicide attempts were more often reported among those who had overdosed (odds ratio (OR) = 6.3), and the number of life-threatening overdoses and number of suicide attempts were positively and moderately associated (Pearson's r = 0.39). Drug addicts who had exhibited both life-threatening behaviours were characterized by polydrug use, poor social functioning and HIV risk-taking behaviour. Suicide attempters were also characterized by psychiatric problems. CONCLUSIONS: The substantial co-variation between suicide attempts and drug overdose suggests some common underlying causal factors. These seem to be related to heavy drug use and poor social integration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Young, wet & wild? Associations between alcohol intoxication and violent behaviour in adolescence.

AIMS: To assess gender- and age-specific associations between alcohol intoxication and engagement in violent behaviours in young people. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENT: Cross-sectional study comprising a national sample of 12,000 Norwegian adolescents aged 12-20 years. Data on violent behaviour, alcohol intoxication and various confounders were obtained by self-administered questionnaires in school. FINDINGS: 2.8% had been in fight with a weapon and 32.6% had been beating or threatening to beat someone during the past year. Violent behaviours were more often reported among boys, in the younger age groups, with increasing frequency of alcohol intoxication, among users of other drugs, among those engaged in criminal activities and among those in wet environments (friends drinking regularly and parents often being intoxicated). The impact of intoxication frequency on number of times engaged in violent behaviours was of modest magnitude. It was greater in the youngest age group compared to those in the middle and late teens and greater for boys than for girls. However, when criminal activities were controlled for, the adjusted effect of intoxication on violent behaviour was significantly reduced, the effect was then of the same magnitude for both genders, whereas there was no longer any significant effect in the youngest age group. Controlling also for parents' and friends' drinking and parental monitoring did not alter these findings. CONCLUSIONS: A small direct effect of alcohol intoxication on violent behaviour appears to remain after controlling for various relevant confounders in middle and late teens. However, possible indirect effects of alcohol intoxication, mediated by own deviant life-style and wetness of environment, should also be taken into consideration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Alcohol abuse and suicidal behaviour in young and middle aged men: differentiating between attempted and completed suicide.

AIMS: To establish whether alcohol abuse as a risk factor in suicidal behaviour would be different in parasuicide compared to completed suicide, and to explore the relative impact of alcohol abuse on completed suicide among parasuicides. DESIGN: A 25-year follow-up study by linking data from military conscription, inpatient treatment and death register. PARTICIPANTS: A cohort of 46,490 Swedish male conscripts born in 1950-51. MEASUREMENTS: Psychiatric diagnosis was recorded at conscription, diagnoses related to alcohol abuse and suicidal behaviour were recorded at any inpatient treatment during follow-up, and underlying cause of death was recorded for those who died during follow-up. FINDINGS: Bivariate analyses showed alcohol abusers to have an elevated risk of attempted suicide (OR = 27.1) as well as completed suicide (OR = 4.7), but in the latter case to a significantly lesser extent. Correspondingly, alcohol abusers constituted a significantly larger proportion of the parasuicides (33.3%) than of the completed suicides (10.0%). A relatively stronger impact of alcohol abuse on parasuicide than on completed suicide remained after controlling for psychiatric co-morbidity, the adjusted odds ratios for attempted suicide and completed suicide being 8.8 and 2.4, respectively. Attempted suicide was a highly significant risk factor for completed suicide (OR = 13.5). Among those who attempted suicide, alcohol abusers were found to have a significantly lower risk of completed suicide than other suicide attempters (OR = 0.46). CONCLUSION: The significantly stronger association between alcohol abuse and attempted suicide compared to completed suicide may be viewed in the light of possible impact of intoxication and impulsiveness on non-fatal suicidal behaviour in alcohol abusers.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[When need is greatest--is help nearest? Help and treatment after attempted suicide among adolescents].

In a comprehensive national survey among adolescents aged 14-22 years, a total of 579 (7.6% of the net sample) stated that they had at same time taken an overdose of pills or had tried to harm themselves, in some other way. The proportion of the attempted suicides who had received help or treatment in hospital or from a medical practitioner afterwards was 6%. The proportion was higher among those who had made repeated attempts of suicide and among frequent users of drugs. A total of 16% reported having received help or treatment from a psychologist or psychiatrist, and showed a higher depression score than other attempted suicides. Thirty-two percent reported receiving help from family or friends after-wards, mostly from friends. Two thirds of the boys reported not having received any help or treatment after the suicide attempt.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Alcohol abuse and mortality: a 40-year prospective study of Norwegian conscripts.

The availability of a 40-yr prospective study of more than 40,000 Norwegian men born in 1932-33 constituted the point of departure for assessing excess mortality in alcohol abusers as well as proportions of premature deaths in men attributable to alcohol abuse. The conscripts were medically examined at the military screening, alcohol abuse was categorized for those registered as admitted to alcohol treatment units over a 35-yr period from 1951 to 1987, and these data were further linked to the national death register in 1991. A total of 4468 men died before the age of 60 (10.8% of the sample). Alcohol abusers were found to have an overall excess mortality of 3.3, increasing with age. The cumulative risk of death before the age of 60 yr was estimated to 0.405 for the alcohol abusers, and at least 6.7% of all deaths before the age of 60 could be attributed to alcohol abuse. Presence of chronic diseases at conscription did not confound the estimates of excess mortality in alcohol abusers, neither was any significant interaction between chronic diseases at conscription and later alcohol abuse found with respect to mortality. The most prevalent causes of death in the total sample were, in descending order, cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors, and accidents. The relative risks for alcohol abusers of death from accidents,cardiovascular diseases, and malignant tumors were estimated as 3.2, 2.5, and 1.8, respectively.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Alcohol-related violence: the impact of drinking pattern and drinking context.

The impact of alcohol consumption, drinking pattern and drinking context on involvement in alcohol-related violence was assessed in a survey of 2711 Norwegian adults. Having taken part in a fight while influenced by alcohol and having been injured by an intoxicated person during the past year was reported by 3% and 2.4% of the respondents, respectively. Involvement in alcohol-related violence was most often reported among younger people, among single people, and it was positively associated with alcohol consumption, frequency of intoxication and frequency of visiting public drinking places. Both frequency of intoxication and overall alcohol consumption were positively associated with the probability of having been in a fight while intoxicated. Frequency of visits to public drinking places was significantly associated with the risk of being injured by an intoxicated person, also when own drinking pattern was controlled for. The results also indicated that the more often drinking takes place in public drinking places, the less is the impact of intoxication on the probability of getting into a fight.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

The disadvantage of being advantaged?--on a social gradient in excess mortality among alcohol abusers.

Do alcohol abusers from upper social classes have a more elevated excess mortality than alcohol abusers from lower social classes? This question was empirically assessed by analyses on data from a 40-year prospective study of more than 40,000 Norwegian conscripts on whom data on social class (i.e. educational level), alcohol abuse (admission to treatment) and cause specific mortality before the age of 60 years were available. The results demonstrated a social gradient in excess mortality: relative risk of premature death was 2.7 among those with the lowest educational level (primary school only) increasing to 6.2 among those with the highest educational level at conscription (grammar school). Among the alcohol abusers the risk of premature death, was slightly, but not significantly higher among those highly educated as compared to those with less education. Thus, alcohol abuse was not only found to elevate the individual's risk of premature death, but it also appeared to outweigh the advantages of those more socially privileged with respect to health and mortality. The question as to whether social class differences in selection to treatment could account for the observed social gradient in excess mortality is focused in the discussion.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[Mortality among drug addicts in Norway].

Current drug abusers in Norway seem to differ from those of 25-30 years ago in several respects, namely with regard to selection to drug abuse, living conditions, and the social responses to drug abuse. These factors may all be relevant for morbidity and mortality. Mortality and excess mortality under the age of 50 was assessed on the basis of data on 1,491 drug abusers admitted to the National Clinic for Drug Abusers (Statens klinikk for narkomane) during the years 1961-91. A significant excess mortality among the drug abusers was found for both genders, in all age groups and for all three decades. Males displayed a higher mortality than females, and the mortality among drug abusers increased with increasing age. Excess mortality was higher for women than for men and decreased with increasing age. The most prevalent causes of death were overdoses, suicides and accidents. Mortality from overdoses and diseases was higher among persons admitted during the 1970s and 1980s compared with persons admitted during the 1960s. The results are discussed in light of the qualitative differences between the former and present populations of drug abusers in Norway.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Alcohol abuse and suicide: a 40-year prospective study of Norwegian conscripts.

Suicide mortality among alcohol abusers and the prevalence of alcohol abusers among suicides were assessed in a 40-year follow-up study of 40,000 Norwegian military conscripts. Alcohol abuse was operationalized as either admission to alcohol treatment clinic, alcohol related cause of death, or both. The relative risk of suicide among alcohol abusers was estimated to 6.9. The relative risk of committing suicide among alcohol abusers appeared to be higher in middle age (more than 40 years) than in younger age groups (RR = 12.8 and 4.5, respectively). The life-time risk of suicide, i.e. before the age of 60 years, was estimated to 0.63% for those not categorized as alcohol abusers and 4.76% for those categorized as alcohol abusers.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Regional analyses of alcohol and suicide in Norway: some empirical considerations.

The association between alcohol consumption and suicide was analyzed on aggregate-level data from Norway, applying regional units in the analyses. Thereby two purposes could be served: to validate previous estimates derived from time series analyses, and to assess an empirical indication of alcohol and suicide as alternative solutions. The effect of alcohol consumption on suicide rates tended to be higher for women than for men, which is contrary to results from time series analyses and what might generally be expected. The results are discussed with reference to causal mechanisms and alcohol and suicide as alternative choices of action, and methodological considerations are outlined.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1994

Concordance of parental and adolescent health behaviors.

This paper reports upon an empirical study of health behaviors in adolescents and their parents. The study aimed at assessing: effects of parental health behaviors on that of their adolescent child; whether mother's and father's health behaviors have additive effects on the respective health behaviors of their child; and whether eventual effects of parental health behaviors decrease with increasing age of the child. The data stemmed from the Norwegian national Health Survey in 1985 and comprised separate interviews with two parents and an adolescent child in 337 families. Results from logistic regression analyses showed that the strongest association found between parental and adolescent health behaviors was for fat intake, and the probability of having a low fat intake was 5 times higher if the mother had a low fat intake than if she did not. With the exception of mother's frequency of exercise, all other parental health behaviors were positively and statistically significantly associated with the corresponding health behavior of their adolescent child. Parental fat intake, smoking behavior and alcohol consumption appeared to have additive effects on the corresponding behaviors of their children. No statistically significant interaction between any of the parental health behaviors and age of the adolescent was found. Hence, the effect of parental health behaviors on that of their adolescent child does not seem to decrease with increasing age of the adolescent. The results are discussed with reference to the functions of modeling.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Social characteristics of urban café guests in Norway.

Which factors may influence the number of hours spent per week in cafés, and the amount of alcohol consumed in licensed premises, by urban café guests in Norway? In 1991 a comprehensive questionnaire survey was undertaken among 1053 visitors to 41 licensed cafés in Oslo, Norway. The five most important predictors of time spent in cafés were: household situation (beta = 0.20), occupation (beta = 0.18), personal economic resources and sex (both beta = 0.15) and age (beta = 0.11). These factors were also significant predictors of the number of days during the past 4 weeks the respondents had drunk four glasses or more of alcohol in cafés. Men, people living with others, people with poor economic resources and people not engaged in paid employment or education were the ones who reported spending the most hours per week and the most episodes of "heavy" drinking in cafés during a 4-week period. Visiting and drinking in cafés may be a way of structuring everyday life.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Suicide among drug addicts in Norway.

The impact of drug addiction in suicide with respect to gender and trend changes in drug addiction was assessed from Norwegian data on 1608 drug addicts admitted to treatment over the past three decades. The mean annual mortality rate was 2.3%, and 14.7% of those who died committed suicide. The incidence density of suicide was significantly higher among drug addicts than in the total population, and the excess mortality by suicide was higher for women, higher in the youngest age group, and higher for those who died during the 1970s. No differences in suicide intensity were found between male and female drug addicts, whereas an effect of admission period on suicide intensity was found for women but not for men. Hence, among female drug addicts, those admitted to treatment in the 1970s and 1980s tended to take their own lives during a shorter observation period than those admitted during the 1960s. The degree to which the elevated risk of suicide among drug addicts varies with gender and period is discussed with reference to the impact of gender roles and varying features of drug addicts in Norway over time.

Adolescent↗