Comparison of Suicide Attempters and Decedents in the U.S. Army: A Latent Class Analysis

A clearer understanding of risk factors for suicidal behavior among soldiers is of principal importance to military suicide prevention. It is unclear whether soldiers who attempt suicide and those who die by suicide have different patterns of risk factors. As such, preventive efforts aimed toward reducing suicide attempts and suicides, respectively, may require different strategies. We conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to examine classes of risk factors among suicide attempters (n = 1,433) and decedents (n = 424). Both groups were represented by three classes: (1) External/Antisocial Risk Factors, (2) Mental Health Risk Factors, and (3) No Pattern. These findings support the conceptualization that military suicide attempters and decedents represent a single population.     

Black Women and the Future

Black women's influence upon and reaction to social and economic change in the dawn of the twenty-first century are examined. Selected trends in labor force participation and family organization are discussed in relation to possible consequences for black women's role in the family and the socialization of black females. The importance of religion in black women's future is discussed, and it is suggested that they will have an increasing role as religious leaders and concomitant opportunities for organizing around women's issues. Finally, black women's renewed interest in Africa is discussed and implications for personal and community enhancement are examined.     

Acute neuropsychological changes in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.

This study examined the impact of different dialysis treatments on the neuropsychological (NP) functioning of 145 end-stage renal disease patients. Hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients were administered an NP test battery and measures of mood on 2 consecutive days (pre- and 24 hr postdialysis). Biochemistry was assessed at each session. Results indicated significant improvements in NP functioning (attention, concentration, verbal and visual memory, and psychomotor speed) in HD patients 24 hr postdialysis. No such fluctuations were found in PD patients. Although biochemical changes were found in the HD patients at the same time points, these were not consistently related to the NP changes.     

Reversal learning by fornix-transected monkeys

Experiment 1 examined visual reversal learning and in Experiment 2 monkeys were trained to criterion in a serial reversal set between “FR” and “DRO” response requirements. In both cases impairments were observed in fornix-transected monkeys. These results are discussed in connection with previous findings that in serial reversals damage to the hippocampal system in monkeys causes a deficit in spatial but not in visual learning. A unified account is proposed.     

Reciprocal overshadowing in flavour-aversion learning

The present experiments were concerned with the overshadowing by a novel flavour which preceded the pairing of a target flavour and toxicosis. This effect was demonstrated in Experiment I as was reciprocal overshadowing by a novel flavour which was interpolated between the target flavour and illness. Experiment 2 indicated that such overshadowing only occurred if the novel flavour was presented immediately prior to the target flavour; an interval of 10 min between the two abolished the effect. Experiment 3 indicated that the failure to observe overshadowing with a delay of 10 min between the two flavours was not due to a lack of association between the interfering flavour and illness. These data were interpreted as demonstrating that the introduction of the interfering flavour on the training day resulted in a perceptual generalisation decrement and a subsequent reduction in the aversion displayed to the target flavour.