Most evidence on suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts comes from Western countries; prevalence rates may differ in other parts of the world.

This study determined the prevalence of suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts in high school students in three different regional settings in Kenya.

This was a cross-sectional study of 2652 high school students. We asked structured questions to determine the prevalence of various types of suicidality, the methods planned or effected, and participants’ gender, age and form (grade level). We provided descriptive statistics, testing significant differences by chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests, and used logistic regression to identify relationships among different variables and their associations with suicidality.

The prevalence rates of suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts were 26.8, 14.9 and 15.7%, respectively. These rates are higher than those reported for Western countries. Some 6.7% of suicide attempts were not associated with plans. The most common method used in suicide attempts was drinking chemicals/poison (18.8%). Rates of suicidal thoughts and plans were higher for older students and students in urban rather than rural locations, and attempts were associated with female gender and higher grade level – especially the final year of high school, when exam performance affects future education and career prospects.

Suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts are prevalent in Kenyan high school students. There is a need for future studies to determine the different starting points to suicidal attempts, particularly for the significant number whose attempts are not preceded by thoughts and plans.

Nursing home residents may be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, a question is when and how often nursing homes should test staff for COVID-19 and how this may change as severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolves.

We developed an agent-based model representing a typical nursing home, COVID-19 spread, and its health and economic outcomes to determine the clinical and economic value of various screening and isolation strategies and how it may change under various circumstances.

Under winter 2023–2024 SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant conditions, symptom-based antigen testing averted 4.5 COVID-19 cases compared to no testing, saving $191 in direct medical costs. Testing implementation costs far outweighed these savings, resulting in net costs of $990 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services perspective, $1,545 from the third-party payer perspective, and $57,155 from the societal perspective. Testing did not return sufficient positive health effects to make it cost-effective [$50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) threshold], but it exceeded this threshold in ≥59% of simulation trials. Testing remained cost-ineffective when routinely testing staff and varying face mask compliance, vaccine efficacy, and booster coverage. However, all antigen testing strategies became cost-effective (≤$31,906 per QALY) or cost saving (saving ≤$18,372) when the severe outcome risk was ≥3 times higher than that of current omicron variants.

SARS-CoV-2 testing costs outweighed benefits under winter 2023–2024 conditions; however, testing became cost-effective with increasingly severe clinical outcomes. Cost-effectiveness can change as the epidemic evolves because it depends on clinical severity and other intervention use. Thus, nursing home administrators and policy makers should monitor and evaluate viral virulence and other interventions over time.

Compulsory admission procedures of patients with mental disorders vary between countries in Europe. The Ethics Committee of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) launched a survey on involuntary admission procedures of patients with mental disorders in 40 countries to gather information from all National Psychiatric Associations that are members of the EPA to develop recommendations for improving involuntary admission processes and promote voluntary care.

The survey focused on legislation of involuntary admissions and key actors involved in the admission procedure as well as most common reasons for involuntary admissions.

We analyzed the survey categorical data in themes, which highlight that both medical and legal actors are involved in involuntary admission procedures.

We conclude that legal reasons for compulsory admission should be reworded in order to remove stigmatization of the patient, that raising awareness about involuntary admission procedures and patient rights with both patients and family advocacy groups is paramount, that communication about procedures should be widely available in lay-language for the general population, and that training sessions and guidance should be available for legal and medical practitioners. Finally, people working in the field need to be constantly aware about the ethical challenges surrounding compulsory admissions.

Suicide is a leading cause of death in young people worldwide. Risk factors for suicidal behaviors and endophenotypes are partly heritable, and include variants in genes that drive stress diathesis in addition to, or by interaction with, certain adverse environments. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis genes are candidates for association with the dysregulated cortisol response to psychosocial stress that is observed in suicidal individuals. The role of HPA axis genetic variation will be explored in the context of varying “susceptibility” to suicidality after exposure to certain stressful life events.

A family-based association test was used on a case offspring-parent “trio” sample of 672 suicide attempt cases and their parents. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP's) and/or haplotypes in CRHR1 were studied for interaction with age of exposure to physical and/or sexual assault, gender, and/or lifetime exposure to other types of stressful events.

Preliminary findings show interactions of certain CRHR1 SNP's with sexual and/or physical assault that are associated with suicide attempt, possibly using a violent method. Possible associations with candidate endophenotypes such as Cluster B personalities and early-onset major depression are under investigation.

Interactions of HPA axis genetic variants and stressful life events are consistent with a stress diathesis model of suicidal behavior, and may additionally influence the method and medical damage outcomes of suicide attempts, which may explain part of the diversity within this phenotype.

To investigate the relationship between adaptive, maladaptive, and pathological Internet use and mental health problems, in particular depression, self-harm and suicidal behavior among a representative sample of adolescents from different European countries.

A total of 7.000 students from different European countries were recruited for the SEYLE study, a European school-based intervention study, and completed a self-report questionnaire for baseline assessment. Internet behaviors were evaluated by the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire, depression by the BDI-II, self-harm by the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory and suicidal behavior by the Paykel Suicide Scale.

Pathological Internet users, who met the criteria for Internet addiction, showed significantly higher rates of depression, self-harm and suicidal behavior compared to students with adaptive Internet use. Remarkably, there were no significant differences in depression as well as self-harm and suicidal behavior between students suffering from Internet addiction and students presenting maladaptive Internet behaviors.

These results clearly demonstrate that students presenting either Internet addiction as well as maladaptive Internet use are more likely to suffer from depression as well as self-harm and suicidal behaviour. However, the group of students with Internet addiction and the students presenting maladaptive Internet use did not significantly differ from each other. These results suggest that not only Internet addiction, but also maladaptive Internet use, is associated with symptoms of depression, self-harm and suicidal behavior. Therefore, more attention should be paid to adolescents with maladaptive Internet use in order to early recognize depression, self-harm and suicidality in adolescence.

The researches show a rapid growth of mental disorders among adolescents and young adults that often cooccurs with risk behaviours, such as suicide, which is one of the leading cause of death among young ages 15-34. Therefore it's necessary to use some tools that can promote mental health getting to young lives such as Internet and media.

SUPREME (Suicide Prevention by Internet and Media Based Mental Health Promotion) is aimed to increasing the prevention of risk behaviours and mental health promotion through the use of mass media and Internet.

The main expected outcome is to improve mental health among European adolescents.

In each European countries a sample of 300 students (average age of 15 years) will be selected. The prevention program will be a highly interactive website that which will address topics such as raising awareness about mental health and suicide, combating stigma, and stimulate peer help. The program will use different means of referral to the intervention website: “Adolescent related” and “Professional related”. A questionnaire will be administered to the pupils for require the data on lifestyles, values and attitudes, psychological well-being, familiar relationship and friendship.

Some web-sites, managed by mental health professionals, produced encouraging results about their use in prevention of risk behaviours and in increase well-being, especially in youth with low self-esteem and low life-satisfaction. With the implementation of the SUPREME project we will be able to identify best practices for promoting mental health through the Internet and the media.

To investigate the prevalence of pathological Internet use (PIU) among adolescents in eleven European countries in relation to demographic and health-related risk factors and Internet accessibility using homogenous methodology.

Cross-sectional analysis.

The 7th Framework European Union funded project, Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE), is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating preventive interventions for risk-behaviors among adolescents in Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Spain with Sweden as the coordinating site.

11,956 adolescents (F/M: 6731/5225; mean age: 14.9 ± 0.89) recruited from randomly selected schools within the eleven study sites.

Internet users were classified by gender into three categories: adaptive, maladaptive and pathological, based on the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction (YDQ).

The overall prevalence of PIU was 4.4%. the rate was higher among males than females (5.2% vs. 3.8%). Students not living with a biological parent or relative had the highest risk for both maladaptive and pathological Internet use. Low-parental involvement and parental unemployment showed high relative risk for both maladaptive and pathological Internet use. PIU significantly correlated with the average number of hours spent online. No correlation was found between national levels of Internet accessibility and pathological Internet use.

Prevalence of PIU varied by gender. Youth in households without a biological parent and/or low level of parental involvement had the most significant health-related factors associated with PIU. National levels of Internet accessibility were not a risk factor for either maladaptive or pathological Internet use.

Peer relationships play a critical role in the development of adolescents, not only for the acquisition of social skills but also for the sense of personal identity and competence. Thus the quality of peer relationships influences actual and future mental health of the adolescent.

SEYLE (Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe) is a randomized controlled trial, funded by the EU, evaluating interventions for mental health promotion and suicide prevention. The study comprised 12,395 high-school students from 11 European countries.

We investigated the differences on psychological problems between students with poor and good peer relationships.

1,195 adolescents (mean age 15.3 ± 0.6; 68% females) from the Molise region constituted the Italian sample. Adolescents were identified as with poor peer relationships if they never or just sometimes get along with people of their age, feel that peers like having them in the group and feel that peers were kind and helpful. Psychometric measures were used to assess mental health problems such as depression (Beck Depression Inventory II), anxiety (Zung Self-Assessment Anxiety Scale), well-being (WHO-5) and suicidal ideation (Paykel Suicide Scale).

Adolescents who reported poor peer relationships scored significantly higher (p < .005) on the scales assessing depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation and significantly lower (p < .001) on the WHO-5.

Particularly in adolescence peer relationships may influence psychological well-being and vice versa mental health influences the openness to the others. So promoting mental health and contemporary improve social skills could lead adolescents to a better life.

Social intolerance is one major topic in every modern society, but although it receives much attention in the public space, there is relatively little information related to the behavioral correlates of such attitudes.

To investigate the relation between social intolerance and risk-taking behaviors in European adolescents.

Adolescents from the SEYLE and WE-STAY cohorts were included. The questions evaluating social intolerance, sensation-seeking and delinquent behavior, alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs use were extracted from the baseline questionnaire.

Adolescents positive for at-risk tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs use showed significantly lower levels of social intolerance. This observation might be explained by the social factors associated with substance use at this age group. No relationship was observed with sensation-seeking and delinquent behavior.

Social intolerance is not associated with risk-taking behaviors in adolescents.