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N Kreitman

Publications and source records attributed to N Kreitman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Association of age and social class with suicide among men in Great Britain.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate suicide and "undetermined" deaths by age, economic activity status, and social class in Great Britain among males of working age. DESIGN: The study was a cross sectional analysis of Registrar General's data for England and Wales around 1981, repeated for around 1971, and for Scotland around 1971 and 1981. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For England and Wales around 1971, suicide and undetermined death rates showed a progressive increase with age and a markedly higher rate in the lower social classes. A significant interaction effect was identified in the central age groups of the lower occupational categories. This interaction was confirmed in the remaining three data sets, notwithstanding some differences in the profile of age specific mortality. Other findings included a higher standardised mortality ratio for the economically inactive, who also showed an earlier peak in age specific mortality, and a relative concentration of undetermined as compared to suicide deaths in the lower social classes, but not all these further results were fully replicated. CONCLUSIONS: There is a concentration of suicide and undetermined deaths in the middle age groups of the lower social classes. Plausible explanations include both the social drift and the social genesis hypotheses, the latter including the effects of long term unemployment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

The construction and selection of predictive scales, with special reference to parasuicide.

Issues concerning the use of predictive and screening instruments include the difficulties posed by temporal changes in the base rates for the behaviour of interest, the possible advantages of using three rather than the customary two risk categories, and the desirability of specifying in advance the proportional sizes of the risk subgroups. A method is proposed for constructing and assessing tripartite risk scales, and a new scale for predicting the repetition of parasuicide, with the results of a prospective validation study, is reported.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Long term trends in parasuicide and unemployment in Edinburgh, 1968-87.

Aggregate- and individual-level trends in parasuicide and unemployment among men and women resident in Edinburgh during the years 1968-87 are reported. During the first half of the period unemployment and parasuicide rates increased in parallel (r = 0.91, P less than 0.001 among men; r = 0.82, P less than 0.01 among women). However, while unemployment continued to rise after 1977, parasuicide rates tended to fall (r = -0.83, P less than 0.001 among men; r = -0.38, NS among women). It could be shown that the reversed relationship between parasuicide and unemployment after 1976 was not due to changes over time in the validity of the local unemployment rate as a marker of economic conditions. Suggested explanations for the falling parasuicide rate in Edinburgh include the possibility of a "threshold" effect and the influence of other (non-economic) factors. The rate of parasuicide among the unemployed fell, especially after 1973, while the rate among the employed rose until 1976-7, thereafter tending to fall. The relative risk (rate among the unemployed/rate among the employed) declined until 1979, since when it has fluctuated at about 10. The highest rate of parasuicide was consistently found among the long-term unemployed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease in relation to alcohol consumption in Scotland, 1978-84. Part I: Epidemiology of liver diseases.

A common strategy in epidemiological studies linking alcohol consumption in the general population with liver cirrhosis mortality is to use non-specific cirrhosis mortality rates in which alcoholic and non-alcoholic causes of death are not distinguished. Evidence is presented from Scottish mortality data for 1979 to 1984 that the two forms of cirrhosis have quite different epidemiological profiles. Similar findings emerge from morbidity data. The two forms of disease should be distinguished in future studies in which liver cirrhosis is used as a proxy for consumption, despite the manifest shortcomings of currently available data.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Neurosis divisible?

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1979

Parasuicide in young Edinburgh women, 1968--75.

Between 1968 and 1975 there was a marked, non-artefactual rise in the numbers of young female parasuicides admitted to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre in Edinburgh. The greatest increase in rates occurred among girls aged 15--19 (for events, persons and 'first-ever' episodes). Among teenagers the most marked increase occurred for those who were married; this group also reported a greater increase than did the non-married in the frequency of physical violence and serious debt. 'Marginel' social-sexual roles have also become progressively more common in this age group. The 20- to 24-year group showed a more modest increase in rates, similar for the married and the non-married. In this age group there was no consistent pattern of change for reported violence or debt over the study period, nor were changes in these variables related to marital status. An increase in consumption of alcohol before parasuicide was noted for both age groups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Mortality on lithium.

A register of patients receiving lithium in the Edinburgh and Lothian area of Scotland has been kept by the Medical Research Council Brain Metabolism Unit since 1967. Using this register, information was obtained on 784 patients receiving lithium for a period of up to 115 months (97.4% of the population available for study). 33 patients died during the period of study due predominantly to cardiovascular causes or to suicide. There was nothing to suggest that long-term exposure caused more deaths than short-term exposure and the pattern of mortality resembled that found in other studies of manic-depressive illness, i.e. the majority of deaths occurred in the early stages of follow-up.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

A study of agoraphobic housewives.

Thirty married agoraphobic women referred to out-patient clinics in Edinburgh were compared with 'normal' controls (selected from GP records and screened for the absence of psychiatric symptoms) matched on age, sex social class and marital status. The agoraphobics' husbands were similarly compared with the husbands of the controls. On most measures of attitudes, behaviour, domestic organization and marital interaction, the 2 groups were strikingly similar.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Aspects of suicide and parsuicide.

Five aspects of suicidal behaviour in Edinburgh from 1968 to 1974 were examined. The data referred to 478 suicidal deaths and to parasuicide (attempted suicide) admissions to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre (R.P.T.C.). Firstly: 28% of suicides were found to have had a parasuicide admission and there was some evidence of a slight excess of deaths in the years immediately following parasuicide. Secondly: among suicides preceded by parasuicide, those with a recent episode (within 2 years of death) were found to be essentially similar to those with a longer interval. Thirdly: a history of previous parasuicide at any time was found to be important in delineating two groups of suicide. Suicides with prior parasuicide died more often from poisoning with drugs and were more likely to have a history of psychiatric treatment; suicides without prior parasuicide died more often from poisoning with domestic gas or violent means, were older, of higher social class and less often married. Fourthly: parasuicides who killed themselves within 2 years of admission to the R.P.T.C. were compared with a group of (broadly nonsuicidal) parasuicides. And lastly: a scale predictive of repetition of parasuicidal behaviour was used in an attempt to distinguish parasuicides who killed themselves from those who did not. The scale did not discriminate between the two groups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Parasuicide in Edinburgh--a seven-year review 1968-74.

Parasuicide admissions to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre in Edinburgh are reviewed over the seven year period 1968-74. Special emphasis is given to trends in parasuicide rates for Edinburgh City, but social and clinical data are also described. Though the mean annual increase for admissions is 10-6 per cent, recent years have shown a fall in the rates for men and a levelling off for women. There have been increases in the rates for the young, for men in social classes 4 and 5 and for divorced women, and in poisonings with psychotropic drugs and alcohol consumption among women. At the same time it is important to note variables which have not changed: the relative risks by age and sex, repetition rates, the diagnostic picture, poisoning with non-prescribed drugs, and the rank order of municipal ward rates: and variables which have diminished: the rates for divorced men, overcrowding, domestic gas and barbiturate poisoning, and drug misuse. A comprehensive explanation of parasuicide in the contemporary scene would have to explain both the consistencies and the changing trends. The answer to the central question of why parasuicide is changing remains elusive.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Observing public drinking.

A reliable method of assessing alcohol comsumption in public bars by direct observation is described.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Age and parasuicide ('attempted suicide').

A one-year cohort of parasuicide patients (n = 882) was divided into three age groups, subdivided by sex where indicated. Systematic comparisons of the groups were made, and significant discrepancies validated using a second cohort of patients. A number of social, demographic and clinical differences were found, as well as some unexpected similarities. The rates for subsequent (completed) suicide were conspicuously different in the six age-sex subgroups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

The coal gas story. United Kingdom suicide rates, 1960-71.

A detailed analysis of suicide rates between 1960 and 1971 for England and Wales and for Scotland confirms that all age-sex subgroups have shown a marked decline in suicide due to domestic gas, corresponding in time to the fall in the CO content. After considering data on the effects of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Eighth Revision, accident mortality, some personal characteristics of coal gas suicides, and the use of coal gas in parasuicide it was concluded that a simple casual explantation was likely. Suicide due to non-gas methods has in general increased, markedly so in some groups. It was suggested that neither improved psychiatric services nor voluntary agencies could have produced such changes. The 'compensatory' trend of gas and non-gas suicide rates was indicated for certain age-sex subgroups. The continuing need for suicide research was pointed out, and questions were raised concerning the psychological meaning of the epidemiological data.

Accidents↗