Stances on Assisted Suicide by Health and Social Care Professionals Working With Older Persons in Switzerland

This qualitative study investigated the personal and professional stances of 40 health and social care professionals confronted with assisted suicide of older persons living in nursing homes or supported by social welfare or home care and support services in French-speaking Switzerland. Requests of assisted suicide triggered questions with regard to the professional mission, the quality of accompaniment, values, and ethical principles. Four types of stances emerged from the analysis performed according to the principles of the grounded theory: favorable in principle, professional compromise, personal compromise, and opposed in principle. Each stance results from the combination of several dimensions: personal or professional concordance or compatibility with assisted suicide; implication in, and impact of, the process; appreciation of the process; and satisfaction with the resources at disposal. The differentiated stances adopted by professionals depend largely on their way of interpreting their mission, deontology, and the relationship to the older person.     

Loneliness and Suicidal Risk in Young Adults: Does Believing in a Changeable Future Help Minimize Suicidal Risk Among the Lonely?

This study examined loneliness and future orientation as predictors of suicidal risk, namely, depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, in a sample of 228 college students (54 males and 174 females). Results of regression analyses indicated that loneliness was a significant predictor of both indices of suicidal risk. The inclusion of future orientation was found to significantly augment the prediction model of both depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, even after accounting for loneliness. Noteworthy, beyond loneliness and future orientation, the Loneliness × Future Orientation interaction term was found to further augment both prediction models of suicidal risk. Consistent with the notion that future orientation is an important buffer of suicidal risk, among lonely students, those with high future orientation, compared to low future orientation, were found to report significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Some implications of the present findings for studying both risk and protective factors associated with suicidal risk in young adults are discussed.     

Impact of Economic Hardship and Financial Threat on Suicide Ideation and Confusion

The present study tested the extent to which perceived economic hardship is associated with psychological distress (suicide ideation and confusion) after controlling for personal characteristics. It also explored whether perceived financial threat (i.e., fearful anxious-uncertainty about the stability and security of one's personal financial situation) mediates the relationship between economic hardship and psychological distress outcomes. The theoretical model was tested in a sample of Canadian students (n = 211) and was validated in a community sample of employed Portuguese adults (n = 161). In both samples, the fit of the model was good. Parameter estimates indicated that greater experience of economic hardship increased with financial threat, which in turn increased with levels of suicide ideation and confusion. We discuss the practical implications of these results, such as for programs aimed at alleviating the burden of financial hardship, in our concluding remarks.     

The psychodynamics of hope in suicidal despair

For suicidal individuals, crushing hopelessness correlates more strongly than depression with suicidal intent. Ambivalence is recognized as a principal aspect of suicidality – wanting to die and wanting to be rescued at the same time. Hope is the mental state in which the desire of a positive outcome in one’s life is directed toward the future, and supports a positive resolution to psychic pain, thereby playing an important role in suicide prevention by delaying self-destructive action. This paper explores the psychodynamics of hope in suicidal distress, as it functions to support the suicidal patient’s sense of connection over abandonment and rescue over the wish to die. Three pathways that instill and support hope in suicidal patients are examined through the use of clinical examples.     

生活事件与大学生自杀意念的关系——气质性乐观的调节作用

目的在医学生中探讨气质性乐观、生活事件与自杀意念的关系。方法采用自杀意念自评量表以及乐观问卷、青少年生活事件量表对两所医学院校的800名临床医学专业学生进行调查。结果①应激事件对医学生的自杀意念水平有正向预测作用,应激事件越严重,学生的自杀意念水平越高;②气质性乐观对应激事件与自杀意念之间的关系具有调节作用。结论气质性乐观是负性生活事件与自杀意念之间的调节器。     

从“富士康事件”看员工自杀心理及其预防

最近,富士康集团发生的一系列"跳楼"事件,将这个"代工巨人"推向了舆论的风口浪尖。究竟是工作压力过大还是另有隐情?是个人原因还是企业文化的问题?再反观近几年华为、交通银行、移动公司等一系列的自杀事件,根源又是什么?本文将结合"富士康事件"从心理学角度探讨自杀者所具有的一般心理特征,并就自杀的预防提出了一些建议和对策。     

生活应激诱发大学生抑郁症状及轻生意念预警模型

用“大学生人格问卷”(UPI)和“学生生活应激量表”(SLSI)检测大学生3558例,并用回归分析和路经分析探讨其应激过程(应激源—应激反应)诱发抑郁症状及轻生意念的预警模型。结果显示,大学生生活中所承受的挫折、压力、变化和自我强加是预警抑郁症状产生的主要应激源;情绪反应、生理反应、行为反应和认知反应是预警抑郁症状产生的主要应激反应;大学生抑郁症状诱发轻生意念的预测正确率为97.0%,发生比(OR)或危险率1.86倍于非抑郁症状者,其中女生抑郁症状诱发轻生意念的危险率近2倍于无此症状者;应激源直接引起应激反应,应激反应直接诱发抑郁症状,抑郁症状直接引发轻生意念,应激源和应激反应不直接影响轻生意念,而通过诱发抑郁症状间接影响轻生意念。此预警模型为大学生危机心理鉴别干预提供了临床心理学依据和参数。     

Family Factors Predicting Categories of Suicide Risk

We compared family risk and protective factors among potential high school dropouts with and without suicide-risk behaviors (SRB) and examined the extent to which these factors predict categories of SRB. Subjects were randomly selected from among potential dropouts in 14 high schools. Based upon suicide-risk status, 1,083 potential high school dropouts were defined as belonging to one of four groups; 573 non-suicide risk, 242 low suicide risk, 137 moderate suicide risk and 131 high suicide risk. Results showed significant group differences in all youth self-reported family risk and protective factors. Increased levels of suicide risk were associated with perceived conflict with parents, unmet family goals, and family depression; decreased levels of risk were associated with perceived parental involvement and family support for school. Perceived conflict with parents, family depression, family support satisfaction, and availability of family support for school were the strongest predictors of adolescent SRB. Our findings suggest that suicide vulnerable youth differ from their non-suicidal peers along the dimensions of family risk and protective factors.     

Drop-in suicide prevention group decreases suicidal ideation among Veterans

This study examined the effectiveness of a weekly, drop-in therapy support group designed for Veterans identified at increased risk for suicide. Veterans were identified as at risk for suicide and referred to the group following hospitalization on the inpatient psychiatric unit after an increase in suicidal ideation (SI), presentation to a provider with SI with a plan, or having made a suicide attempt. An archival chart review was performed on 359 patients who were referred to the Coping, Understanding, Support, and Prevention Group from 2009 through 2011. Documented risk of suicide was collected from the chart including: frequency of inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, visits to the emergency department or mental health walk in clinic for SI, reported SI in clinical notes, consults resulting from calls to the Veteran’s Crisis Line, and assignment or removal of suicide risk behavior flags in the electronic medical record, for a period of 12 months prior to referral to the group and for a period of 12 months after referral to the group. Negative binomial regression models found that Veterans attending the support group showed a significantly greater reduction in frequency of endorsing SI post-referral compared to those who did not attend the group. Results imply that offering Veterans an ongoing therapeutic group format to give and receive support from peers also struggling with suicide risk factors is an effective way to reduce suicide-related thoughts.     

Stefan Lux (1888–1936): a calculated suicide before the Second World War

In 1936 Stefan Lux, a Jew born in Vienna, and naturalized in Czchoslovakia, shot himself during a session of the League of Nations in Geneva. The situation would become much more dire for German Jews in the coming years, and few sensed that anything akin to the Holocaust was in store. Lux believed he had timed his suicide precisely to bring attention to, and counteract, the problem of “statelessness” that was on the agenda of the League. Lux also feared that the defences Jews had utilized before 1933 to ward off antisemitism were no longer viable, as they were under assault by the entirety of the arts and cultural apparatus in Germany. This case illustrates both the prescience and limits of Lux’s carefully orchestrated suicide.