Suicidal behavior in the municipality of Baerum, Norway: a 12-year prospective study of parasuicide and suicide

The present 12-year (1984-1995) surveillance study includes all hospitalized parasuicide patients (n = 1,031) as well as all suicides (n = 161) in the municipality of Baerum, a suburb of Oslo. The parasuicide rate decreased from 170 per 100,000 in 1984 to 79 per 100,000 in 1995 (53.5%). The parasuicide rates were lower than those in several comparable studies. Rates were higher for divorced females and separated males compared to married and other marital states, and the pattern of relative risk of parasuicide with respect to marital status was stable. Unemployment and substance abuse were positively correlated with parasuicidal behavior for both males and females. Approximately 33% reported one or more previous parasuicidal acts, and 21% repeated the parasuicide during the observation period. Ninety-four percent used self-poisoning as parasuicide method. A total of 2.4% of the parasuiciders committed suicide during the observation period. The mean annual suicide rate in Baerum was 19.0 per 100,000 compared to the national average of 14.7. The results support the notion of parasuicide and suicide being two different but overlapping populations. The implementation of a follow-up system for parasuiciders may have contributed to the reduced parasuicide rate during the study period.     

A large-scale comparison of perspectives on parenting between teenage runaways and nonrunaways

Teenage runaways were compared to teenage nonrunaways concerning their views on parenting behaviors. In ratings of reasons for running away, the runaways emphasized typical teenage issues such as differences in values from parents and rebellion. On the other hand, nonrunaways gave highest ratings to more dramatic issues such as parental abuse and drug use. Runaways were less likely to want to have children than nonrunaways and, if they did have children, runaways anticipated being very different with their children than their parents had been with them (e.g., more involved and open). Nonrunaways generally expected to be about the same as their parents had been. Suggestions for treatment, based on the findings, are offered.     

Death anxiety: A hidden factor in countertransference hate

We suggest that when diffucult patients attack our grandiosity and sense of self, we are vulnerable to countertransference anxieties similar, if not identical, to the kind existentialists refer to as ontological. The latter refers specifically to a threat to our psychological equilibrium and is meant to describe the utter ambivalence we associate with death anxiety. In this paper, we are proposing the presence, in certain therapeutic situations, of just such counter-transference reactions to so-called aversive patients. We believe that terms like aversive, obnoxious, or impossible are professional euphemisms used to mask the degree of anxiety we often feel, and that there is a collusion present both within and without our profession, especially in psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic centers, which keeps us from exploring death-related issues within ourselves as well as in our patients.He is Director of Psychological Services at the Parkside Weight Loss Clinic, an interdisciplinary eating disorders program affiliated with the Lutheran General Health Care System.     

A comparison of auditory monitoring performance in blind subjects with that of sighted subjects in light and dark

Two experiments were performed in which blind Ss, sighted Ss working in the dark, and sighted Ss working in the light were compared as to their efficiency on an auditory watchkeeping task. Absolute and differential auditory thresholds were measured in both experiments, and in the second experiment the groups also underwent a signal detection session under alerted conditions. There was some inconsistency as to relative performance of the sighted groups, but in both experiments the blind Ss were superior on the auditory watchkeeping task as to signals detected and effective sensitivity (d’). 1 This difference was not attributable to a difference in auditory sensitivity or to a criterion adopted for     

Effects of signal to noise variability over repeated sessions in an auditory vigilance task

Subjects listened to a sequence of Gaussian noise pulses of 0.5-sec duration, occurring at 2.5-sec intervals. Performance was compared under two conditions: One group detected the occurrence of a 1.8-dB increment in noise pulses; a second group detected the occurrence of increments of 1.3, 1.8, or 2.3 dB. All Ss performed for three 90-min sessions on different days The usual trends were noted for hits and false alarms. TSD indices, d’ and β were also derived. For both groups, it was found that d′ increased slightly over sessions and decreased almost negligibly during sessions, and criterion indices, β generally increased slightly both within and over sessions. Performance was generally comparable under the fixed- and mixed-signal conditions.     

Sense mode and coupling in a vigilance task

Usarmymedical Research Laboratory, Fort Knox, Kentucky This investigation examined the performance of 36 Ss on three 90-min vigilance tasks. As time on task increased, there was a significant decrease in number of detections and false responses and a corresponding significant increase in response latency. The consistent rank order relationship between stimulus conditions suggests that there were uniform trends among these conventional response measures. There was a significant decline in sensitivity (d′) lor the closely coupled tasks, regardless of the sense mode involved. However, d′ remained fairly stable for the loosely coupled visual task. The significant increase in criterion values(β) suggest that Ss adopt a more conservative mode of responding with increasing time on task. Further, these data indicate that a lack of control of coupling effects, rather than sense mode specificity, may have confounded the interpretation of prior research on visualand auditory tasks.     

Le Calcul de L'Ambiguite de Shannon en Code Binaire

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