Suicide, homicide, and demographic shifts: an epidemiologic study of regional and national trends.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P C Holinger.
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Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 5- to 19-year-olds in the United States and accounts for more than 100,000 years of potential life lost annually. We present cross-sectional and longitudinal data on suicide for 0- to 19-year-olds by age, sex, and race; clinical and sociocultural factors associated with youth suicide; cost estimates of morbidity and mortality; intervention and prevention strategies; and future research directions.
Unintended injuries have become the third most frequent cause of death in the United States, and the relative importance of homicide and suicide has also increased. In recent decades, death rates from highway crashes and fires have fallen, and experience indicates that serious injuries in the workplace can be drastically reduced. Less progress has been made in preventing homicide and suicide. Tasks for the future include more research on the efficacy of preventive interventions, improvement of injury surveillance and prevention programs, and education of children and adults about injury prevention. Family physicians can play an important role in injury prevention efforts.
Some of the most important issues in dynamic psychiatry involve the mechanisms of action of and the distinctions between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Recent advances in developmental psychology and in clinical practice and theory provide new insights into these long-standing controversies.
Epidemiological relationships were studied between adolescent (ages 15 to 24 years) suicide rates and population shifts among adolescents. Suicide rates among adolescents tripled from 1956 to 1977 and have subsequently leveled off. Increases (and decreases) in adolescent suicide rates corresponded to increases (and decreases, respectively) in the proportion of adolescents in the United States. Opposite trends have been found among older age groups. Projected population fluctuations were used to predict trends in adolescent suicide rates to the year 2000: the current decrease in rates is predicted to continue until the mid-1990s. Recent data indicating a decrease in adolescent suicide rates tend to support the population model hypothesis. The data suggest that demographic variables may be of explanatory and predictive use in understanding the epidemiological trends of suicide. Early intervention and prevention strategies emerge from this model, and various social, public health, and research implications exist. However, the results must be viewed with caution because of the methodological problems inherent in using national mortality data, the possibility that other variables may account for the observed relationships, and the length of time required to test such prospective epidemiological propositions.
The authors found significant positive correlations between the suicide and homicide rates for 15-24-year-olds and the proportion of 15-24-year-olds in the U.S. population from 1933 to 1982. Significant negative correlations were found for most adult age groups (35-64 years). Since future numbers of adolescents and adults can be estimated on the basis of current population data for children and preadolescents, the epidemiologic patterns for suicide and homicide may be predictable for certain age groups. However, methodologic problems are inherent in using national mortality and population data, and many years are necessary to evaluate such epidemiologic propositions.
Time trends are presented for suicide, homicide and accident mortality rates in the United States, 1900-1975. These data suggest that national mortality rates for suicide, homicide and motor-vehicle accidents tend to be parallel over time. Non-motor-vehicle accidents, while showing some fluctuations similar to those of other forms of violent deaths, manifest a more general decrease throughout the century. In addition, suicide rates tend to be significantly correlated over time with homicide, motor-vehicle and non-motor-vehicle accident death rates for most race and sex combinations. These results need to be viewed with caution due to the methodologic problems inherent in using national mortality data. However, the findings raise serious questions about the traditional understanding of the relationships between the various forms of violent death in populations; in particular, the popular view that suicide and homicide are inversely related in populations is questioned. The explanatory usefulness of conceptualizing violent deaths as reflecting self-destructive tendencies is discussed.
Suicide rates among adolescents (15--19-year-olds) in the United States are currently higher than ever recorded. The authors examined the relationship between suicide rates and population changes among adolescents. They found significant positive correlations between adolescent suicide rates, changes in the adolescent population, and changes in the proportion of adolescents in the population of the United States in 1933--1975. In contrast, the suicide rate of an older age group (65--69-year-olds) was inversely, but not significantly, related to shifts in that population. These results suggest that the suicide rates for the adolescent age group can be predicted, a finding which may have important public health consequences.
The nature and cause of psychiatric symptoms associated with the posthyroidectomy bilateral abductor vocal cord paralysis (BAVCP) syndrome are analyzed. The postthyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome is characterized by normal voice, airway obstruction, hypothyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, and psychiatric manifestations. Forty-five (35.2%) of 128 patients with postthyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome had psychiatric manifestations of some kind. The following four categories of psychiatric problems were found: (1) preexisting psychiatric symptoms exacerbated by the postthyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome, (2) psychiatric symptoms initiated by the syndrome, (3) psychiatric symptoms that were etiologically distinct from the syndrome, and (4) misdiagnosis. The variety of psychiatric symptoms, as well as the difficulty in determining the cause of the symptoms, makes it essential that surgeons, internists, and psychiatrists cooperate in the treatment of patients with the postthyroidectomy.
The violent death rate (suicide, homicide, and accidents) among the young in the United States has recently increased and is currently higher than ever recorded; by contrast, the violent death rate for the total population decreased over the century. This increase among the young is due to the doubling of homicide rates and the tripling of suicide rates over the past 15 and 20 years, respectively. The risk of dying a violent death is greater for 20-24 year-olds than for 15-19 year-olds, and greater for males than for females; nonwhite rates are currently higher than white rates among 20-24 year-olds, whereas the rates are similar for 15-19 year-olds. Suicide, homicide, and accidents may all represent suicidal tendencies and should be included in any comprehensive attempt to understand the epidemiology of self-destructiveness.
Post-thyroidectomy bilateral abductor vocal cord paralysis (BAVCP) is a life-threatening syndrome characterized by serious psychiatric manifestations as well as by voice, airway, hypothyroid, and hypoparathyroid symptoms. Of the 128 patients with post-thyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome, 45 (35.2 per cent) had psychiatric complications: 21 of the 128 patients (16.4 per cent) had pre-existing psychiatric symptoms exacerbated by the post-thyroidectomy BAVCP syndrome, 16 (12.5 per cent) had psychiatric symptoms initiated by the syndrome, six (4.7 per cent) had psychiatric symptoms etiologically distinct from the syndrome, and two (1.6 per cent) were misdiagnosed. The role of psychiatric treatment is described. Theoretical aspects of laryngeal dysfunctions associated with psychiatric disorders and psychotropic medications are discussed.
In the United States violent deaths (suicide, homicide, and accidents) are the leading cause of deaths in people aged 1-39 and the third leading cause of death for people of all ages. Violent death rates have tended to decrease since 1900. Among 15-24-year-olds, however, the violent death rate is currently the highest ever recorded in this country, and suicide and homicide rates among people aged 5-14 and 15-24 are as high or higher than any previous recordings. The quantity of expected life lost through violent deaths is greater than that for any other cause of death.
A case of a woman with severe lithium toxicity and hypothyroidism with persistent hyponatremia and hypokalemia is presented. The mechanisms of the development of lithium toxicity by alterations in fluid and sodium metabolism, including those induced by lithium itself, are reviewed. The possibility that hypothyroidism may have been a significant determinant in the development of this case of lithium toxicity is considered and discussed. This is of special interest given that lithium can induce hypothyroidism. In addition, the safe reinstitution of lithium prophylaxis in this woman can be reported.
Violent deaths (suicide, homicide, and accidents) are the leading cause of death in people aged 1--39 in the United States. All three types of violent death may represent suicidal tendencies. Among early (10--14 years), middle (15--19), and late (20--24) adolescents, suicide and homicide rates increased with age and have doubled from 1961 to 1975. Accident rates increased with age but have changed little over the 15-year period. Suicide, homicide, and accidents increased dramatically between the 10--14-year-old age group and the 15--19-year-old age group; suicide and homicide rates were remarkably parallel over time; and suicide rates among young white people were higher and increased more than those among young nonwhite people.
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This report describes 21 infants and children with bilateral abductor vocal cord paralysis and associated meningomyelocele, Arnold-Chiari malformation, and hydrocephalus. Two life-threatening forms of respiratory distress are distinguished: (1) upper airway obstruction due to bilateral abductor cord paralysis and (2) apnea. Clinically significant episodes of apnea were documented in 13 infants. Ten infants had evidence of aspiration and dysphagia. Vocal cord paralysis, apnea, aspiration, and dysphagia were frequently temporally related to increased intracranial pressure.
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The Wholistic Health Center action-research project is designed to stimulate new approaches for rectifying a variety of maladies present in the nation's primary health care delivery system. In response to the call for an increase in health education programs, for availability of care in early stages of illness, for care focused on life stress factors, and for better coordination of care-the church-based Wholistic Health Centers utilize a unique multidisciplinary teamwork approach for diagnosis and treatment planning. The patient is involved as an active participant in this process. In conjunction with the University of Illinois, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, the project has developed from its inception as a free clinic in Springfield, Ohio, to the establishment of two potentially self-supporting centers in middle and upper-income suburbs west of Chicago, Illinois.