Prior Mental Disorders and Lifetime Suicidal Behaviors Among US Army Soldiers in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS)

We report on associations of retrospectively reported temporally prior mental disorders and Army career characteristics with subsequent first onset of suicidal behaviors in a large, representative sample of US Army soldiers who participated in the Consolidated All‐Army Survey of the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (N = 29,982). Results reveal that among men and women, all self‐reported lifetime disorders measured (some assessed with screening scales) are associated with subsequent onset of suicide ideation. Among men, three disorders characterized by agitation and impulsiveness (intermittent explosive disorder, panic disorder, and substance disorders) predict the transition from suicide ideation to attempt. For both men and women, being in the Regular Army (vs. National Guard or Army Reserve) predicts suicide attempts in the total sample. For men, a history of deployment and junior rank are predictors of suicide attempts after adjusting for preenlistment disorders but not accounting for pre‐ and postenlistment disorders, suggesting that postenlistment disorders account for some of the increased suicide risk among these career characteristics. Overall, these results highlight associations between mental disorders and suicidal behaviors, but underscore limitations predicting which people with ideation attempt suicide.     

Suicide Risk Among Wounded U.S. Service Members

The association between suicide and combat injuries sustained during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was examined. A retrospective population‐based cohort design was conducted using official military records to identify combat injuries (October 7, 2001, to December 31, 2007). Those who were injured during combat had higher crude suicide rates than those who deployed and were not injured (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.50; confidence interval [CI] = 1.06, 2.12), or never deployed (IRR = 1.46; CI = 1.04, 2.06). After adjusting for demographics, these findings were no longer statistically significant. Although our data did not support an elevated suicide risk among wounded service members, additional research is needed to examine the impact of injury severity.     

The Counselling Interview Rating Form: a teaching and evaluation tool for counsellor education

The Counselling Interview Rating Form (CIRF) was developed to evaluate trainee counsellors' use of microskills and other aspects of the counselling session. The CIRF provides a structured format for evaluation that enhances the teaching and learning of interviewing skills by supervisors and trainee counsellors respectively. Uses of the CIRF in educational and clinical settings are described.     

Objective and subjective socioeconomic status and susceptibility to the common cold.

OBJECTIVE: We ask whether subjective socioeconomic status (SES) predicts who develops a common cold when exposed to a cold virus. DESIGN: 193 healthy men and women ages 21-55 years were assessed for subjective (perceived rank) and objective SES, cognitive, affective and social dispositions, and health practices. Subsequently, they were exposed by nasal drops to a rhinovirus or influenza virus and monitored in quarantine for objective signs of illness and self-reported symptoms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Infection, signs and symptoms of the common cold, and clinical illness (infection and significant objective signs of illness). RESULTS: Increased subjective SES was associated with decreased risk for developing a cold for both viruses. This association was independent of objective SES and of cognitive, affective and social disposition that might provide alternative spurious (third factor) explanations for the association. Poorer sleep among those with lesser subjective SES may partly mediate the association between subjective SES and colds. CONCLUSIONS: Increased Subjective SES is associated with less susceptibility to upper respiratory infection, and this association is independent of objective SES, suggesting the importance of perceived relative rank to health.     

Developmental Potential in Venezuelan and American Artists: A Cross-Cultural Validity Study

By comparing the overexcitability scores of 27 Venezuelan and 23 American artists, support was found for the hypothesis that creative individuals show a high degree of animistic, intuitive, and emotional thinking. Overexcitability refers to heightened mental functioning in Dabrowski's (1964) theory of emotional development. Along with other special talents and abilities, it represents the developmental potential for intensified personality growth. Scores on 4 of the 5 dimensions of overexcitability were not significantly different for American and Venezuelan artists. This evidence of similar profiles for artists in 2 different societies demonstrates cross-cultural validity for the concept of developmental potential.     

Covert orienting to the locations of targets and distractors: Effects on response channel activation in a flanker task

The role of covert orienting of attention in response channel activation was examined using the flanker interference and precueing paradigms. Four experiments assessed the influence of distractors on the discrimination of a target colour patch under cueing conditions (three with non-informative, exogenous cues and one with informative, endogenous cues) that modulated attention at the flanker or target locations. Across all of the experiments, the amount of interference generated by the distractors was not modulated by the facilitation and inhibition of return induced by spatial attention precues. These results are consistent with previous reports of patients with neglect, which demonstrated that flanker interference proceeds at unattended locations (Audet, Bub, & Lecours, 1991; Cohen, Ivry, Rafal, & Kohn, 1995), and they suggest that response channel activation can occur independently from spatial attention.