This study examined the influence of social support on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and comorbid psychopathology, suicidal behaviour, and mental and physical health functioning in the general population. Data came from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (N=34,653). Results showed a differential impact of posttraumatic stress disorder and social support depending on gender. For men, social support had a moderating effect, where social support had a greater influence on the prevalence of comorbid psychopathology for men with posttraumatic stress disorder compared to those without the disorder. In contrast, social support had an additive effect for women, where social support was associated with decreased psychopathology and posttraumatic stress disorder was associated with increased psychopathology. This study suggests that social support should be included in the treatment of men with posttraumatic stress disorder and encouraged among women regardless of mental disorder diagnosis.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), suicide is one of the three main causes of deaths in the age group 15 to 34 years. Persons who previously attempted to commit suicide are more inclined to succeed with a second attempt. With the eventual focus on suicide prevention by means of life guidance as an assistance strategy in social work, the researcher undertook qualitative exploration amongst a specific group of adolescent girls between ages 15 and 21 years. These girls were each admitted to hospital after having attempted to commit suicide. The researcher used semi–structured in–depth interviews as a qualitative data collection method until data saturation was reached. The investigation was discussed against the backdrop of the strength perspective, crisis intervention, the system theory and existentialism. A discussion was led in Article 1 about findings regarding the psychosocial needs of adolescent girls who displayed suicidal behaviour. From the interviews, three overarching needs were foregrounded, namely the need for love and acceptance, the need for communication and the need for a secure future. The psychosocial needs were subdivided into sub–themes, which were discussed respectively. In Article 2 a discussion followed regarding the findings in terms of the support systems adolescents possess. Life guidance was eventually based on the needs of adolescent girls, as identified in Article 1, and the involvement and responsibility of the support systems, as discussed in Article 2. The guidelines for life guidance, as set out in Article 3, serve as a guiding recommendation and framework for intervention programmes for adolescent girls who display suicidal behaviour, as well as for the support systems involved. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Suicidal behaviour is a major public health issue globally. The incidence of suicide and attempted suicide internationally is excessive, particularly among indigenous populations. The Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) suicide and attempted suicide rates have exceeded the non-Māori rates in New Zealand. In an attempt to address the high incidence of Māori suicidal behaviour an epidemiological case control study was initiated. Method: 250 consecutive cases of Māori who attempted suicide who were admitted to one of the three Auckland public hospitals were compared to 250 random, Māori community-based controls (found through door knocking). Participants were compared on a variety of measures including the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), CAGE Alcohol Screening Test; Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI-suicidality), Beck's Scale of Suicide Intent (SIS); and cultural identity validated questionnaires. Results: Response rates were high for both cases (85.6%) and controls (81.2%). The multivariate analysis revealed that poor general health status was the key risk factor associated with attempted suicide among Māori. Once the health indicator is taken out of the analysis, cultural identity, marijuana utilisation and interpersonal abuse are the next major risk factors in attempted suicide among Māori. Conclusion: Suffering from poor general health can increase attempted suicide among Māori. Having a notional identity and not being connected to Māoritanga (those things Māori; Māori culture) is associated with the risk of suicidal behaviour.

Bakgrund: Suicid är ett folkhälsoproblem. Varje år begår över 700 000 personer världen över suicid och många fler gör suicidförsök. Hälso- och sjukvården har en viktig roll när det handlar om att upptäcka, bemöta och vårda patienter med suicidalt beteende. Patienter som begår suicid har oftast haft kontakt med vården i närtid innan de begår suicid. Forskning visar att patienterna sällan får det bemötandet de skulle behöva. I sjuksköterskans profession ingår att ansvara för och leda omvårdnaden av patienter med suicidalt beteende.       Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturöversikt var att beskriva ​​sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att vårda patienter med suicidalt beteende.      Metod: Litteraturöversikt grundad på elva kvalitativa originalartiklar valda utifrån givna kriterier. Efter kvalitetsgranskning analyserades likheter och skillnader vilket resulterade i fyra teman.       Resultat: Sjuksköterskor erfor att en god vårdrelation är grunden för en bra vård av patienter med suicidalt beteende. De hade många tankar om hur en vårdande relation bör vara och hur de bör agera för att uppnå det. Att vårda dessa patienter väckte starka känslor och svåra etiska frågor. De teman som framkom i denna litteraturöversikt var: Skapa en vårdande relation, Väcka känslor och etiska frågor, Ställa höga krav och Sakna kunskap, träning och stöd.  Slutsats: Det ställs höga krav på sjuksköterskor som vårdar patienter med suicidalt beteende. Sjuksköterskor behöver tid till och förmåga att bygga en god vårdrelation och möjlighet att reflektera om känslor och etiska frågor tillsammans med kollegor. / Background: Suicide is a public health problem. Every year over 700 000 people worldwide commit suicide and many more make suicide attempts. Health care has an important role when it comes to detecting, responding to, and care for patients with suicidal behaviour. Patients who commit suicide have usually had contact with healthcare in the near future before they commit suicide. Research shows that patients rarely receive the treatment they would need. The nurse’s profession includes being responsible for and leading the care of patients with suicidal behaviour. ​      Aim: The purpose of this literature review was to describe nurses‘ experiences of caring for patients with suicidal behaviour.     Method: Literature review based on eleven qualitative original articles selected based om given criteria. After quality review, similarities and differences were analysed, resulting in four themes.       Results: Nurses learned that a good nursing relationship is the basis for good care of patients with suicidal behaviour. They had many thoughts about what a nurturing relationship should be like and how they should act to achieve it. Caring for these patients raises strong emotions and difficult ethical questions. The themes that emerged in this literature review were: Create a nurturing relationship, Raise emotions and ethical questions, Set high demands and Lack knowledge, training and support.        Conclusion: High demands are placed on nurses who care for patients with suicidal behaviour. Nurses need time and ability to build a good care relation and the opportunity to reflect on feelings and ethical issues together with colleagues.

Bakgrund: Suicid är ett globalt folkhälsoproblem hela världen över. Varje år dör 700 000 människor genom fullbordat suicid. I Sverige dör dagligen ca 4 människor genom suicid.   I WHO’s handlingsplan är målet att fram till 2030 att minska suicidantalet med en tredjedel och förebygga psykisk ohälsa. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva vårdpersonalens erfarenheter av att vårda patienter med suicidalt beteende. Metod: En litteraturstudie baserad på tio kvalitativa artiklar. Databassökning genomfördes i Cinahl, PubMed, PsykInfo och Scopus. Studier analyserades med hjälp av Fribergs femstegmodell. Resultat: Analysprocessen resulterade i 3 kategorier och 7 underkategorier. De tre kategorier var: Bristande organisation, känslomässiga reaktioner och attityder. Konklusion: Psykisk ohälsa är ett stigmatiserat ämne. Att vårda suicidala patienter kan vara psykiskt påfrestande för vårdpersonalen. Vårdpersonalen behöver mer kunskap inom det här ämnet för att kunna bedriva en säker och gynnsam vård som främjar hälsa för patienterna samt bidrar till att vårdkvalitén höjs. / Background: Suicide is a global public health problem worldwide. Every year 700,000 people die by completed suicide. In sweden, about 4 people die by suicide every day. In the WHO's action plan, the goal is to reduce the number of suicides by a third by 2030 and prevent mental illness. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the nursing stuff’s experiences of caring for patients with suicidal behavior. Methods: A literature study based on ten qualitative articles. Database search were conducted in Cinahl, PubMed, PsykInfo and Scopus. The articles were analyzed using Friberg’s five-step model. Results: The analysis process resulted in 3 categories and 7 subcategories. The four categories were: Lack of organization, emotional reactions and attitudes. Conclusion: Mental illness is a stigmatized subject. Caring for suicidal patients can be psychologically stressful for the nursing staff. The healthcare staff need more knowledge in this subject to be able to provide safe and beneficial care that promotes health for the patients and contributes to raising the quality of care.

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Suicidal behaviour is a global health concern. The youth have been found to be at an exceptional risk in terms of suicidal behaviour due to a variety of problems that they encounter. Studies have been conducted to conceptualise suicidal behaviour. However, cultural aspects have often been neglected or marginalised. In Africa traditional healers play an important role in health care provision and the conceptualisation of problems encountered by the people. The present study was aimed at exploring how traditional healers conceptualise youth suicidal behaviour in Bakenberg, Limpopo Province. A qualitative exploratory method was utilised to execute the study. Study participants included ten traditional healers (six females and four males) aged between 35 and 85 years of age, who were selected using a snowball sampling method. A conversational method was used to collect data, employing semi-structured interview questions as a way of initiating conversations. The conversations were conducted in Sepedi and later translated into English. The study revealed that suicide is mainly understood to be multifaceted. Witchcraft, family problems, poor problem-solving skills, substance use, life difficulties and other secondary factors were all identified as central themes. The study revealed that suicide is a speciality within traditional healing, thus only those who are gifted and trained can assess or intervene. Ditaola (divination bones) and ancestral guidance were reported to be some of the means used to identify suicidal youth. The study also revealed that talk therapy (counselling) and herbal medicine „Molebatsa‟ were used as the main intervention methods. Herbal medicine is used as both a prevention and treatment of suicidal behaviour in youth. Thus it can prevent the occurrence of suicide or calm an individual who had a failed suicide attempt.

Introduction: Suicidal behaviour still cannot be sufficiently predicted. Exposure to suicidal behaviour in the personal social environment is assumed to moderate the individual's transition from suicidal ideation to suicidal behaviour within the integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behaviour (IMV model). This study aimed to investigate this moderating effect in a German high-risk sample. Methods: We interviewed 308 psychiatric inpatients (53% female) aged 18 to 81 years (M = 36.9, SD = 14.30) admitted after attempted suicide (53%) or due to an acute suicidal crisis (47%) regarding exposure events in their social environment. Four types of exposure events were analysed using moderation analyses: familial suicides/suicide attempts and non-familial suicides/suicide attempts. Additionally, the numbers of reported exposure events were compared between patients with and without a recent suicide attempt as well as between patients with lifetime suicide attempts and lifetime suicidal ideation. Results: Neither moderating effects of exposure events on the relationship between lifetime suicidal ideation and recent suicidal behaviour nor group differences between suicidal ideators and suicide attempters regarding the exposure events were found. Conclusions: Exposure events might have differential and possibly protective effects on suicidal behaviour-depending on type and quality (intensity, personal relevance and recency) of event-and on the outcome (suicide vs. suicide attempt).

Student Number : 7820500 - MA research report - School of Psychology - Faculty of Humanities / Internationally, suicide is highly prevalent among adolescents and young adults, and South African data suggest that suicide is a serious problem that is increasingly affecting the Black population and young men in particular. This study aimed firstly to investigate the prevalence of suicidal behaviour among young adults, and, in a sample of 85 young people (aged 19-30), one in seven had previously attempted suicide, and almost one in three had recently thought about killing themselves. Sociological research has shown that religion has a predominantly protective effect with regard to suicide, however psychological research, while providing evidence for a similar relationship, has also shown that religious strain may contribute to suicidality. This study sought to establish whether a relationship exists between suicidal ideation (and positive ideation), and various indicators of religiosity. Unexpectedly, given the research trends, suicidal ideation was significantly positively associated with self-reported religious salience (r = .297, p = .006), and with the collaborative/deferring religious coping style (r = .301, p = .005), characterized by higher levels of religiosity. Suicidal ideation was significantly negatively associated with the self-directing style (r = -.331, p = .002), favoured by less religious participants. Positive ideation was unrelated to religious salience, participation, and both religious coping approaches. Various explanations were proposed for these results. Cognition is a central pathway for suicidality, and insecure religious attachment, when triggered by stressors, may set in motion a cognitive process involving negative religious attributions and harmful religious coping strategies – typical symptoms of religious strain which has been associated with suicidal behaviour. Maladaptive religious beliefs and behaviours may also have a negative impact on depression, hopelessness and helplessness, all vulnerability factors for suicidal behaviour in young people. It is also possible that, when faced by life challenges that exceed coping capacity, individuals may be more likely to turn to God, while simultaneously experiencing hopelessness, depression and suicidal ideation. Finally, the gender skew in the sample may have resulted in the high levels of suicidal behaviour and religiosity, and the positive relationship between them. Vulnerability to suicidal behaviour in young adults is a multifaceted problem, and religion, itself a multidimensional concept, is one of many factors that may provide protection against or contribute to suicidal behaviour. In order to understand the complex problem of vulnerability to suicidal behaviour in young adults, there is a need for further multivariate research.

This pilot study aimed to contribute to the development of a methodology for researching various aspects of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and suicide in South Africa. To date, few systematic studies into this relationship have been conducted in South Africa. Specifically this study investigated the aspect of suicidal ideation in relation to HIV seroposivity, CD4 cell counts and social support. Although this study did not find increased suicidality in this sample of people living with HIV, the findings highlighted variables that may need to be studied in greater depth and outlined suggestions for further research methodology. Further research could indicate the extent to which suicide assessment and counselling is needed for people living with HIV/AIDS. This in turn could inform policy makers as to the inclusion of suicide assessment into the protocol for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT). / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Background: Suicidal behaviour is a major public health problem that has not abated over the past decade. Adopting machine learning algorithms that allow for combining risk factors that may increase the predictive accuracy of models of suicide behaviour is one promising avenue toward effective prevention and treatment. Methods: We used Canadian Community Health Survey – Mental Health and Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey to build conditional inference random forests models of suicidal behaviour in Canadian general population and Canadian Armed Forces. We generated risk algorithms for suicidal behaviour in each sample. We performed within- and between-sample validation and reported the corresponding performance metrics. Results: Only a handful of variables were important in predicting suicidal behaviour in Canadian general population and Canadian Armed Forces. Each model’s performance on within-sample validation was satisfactory, with moderate to high sensitivity and high specificity, while the performance on between-sample validation was conditional on the size and heterogeneity of the training sample. Conclusion: Using conditional inference random forest methodology on large nationally representative mental health surveys has the potential of generating models of suicidal behaviour that not only reflect its complex nature, but indicate that the true positive cases are likely to be captured by this approach.