2 results
Interplay of combat deployment harassment, testosterone concentrations and post-deployment suicide risk in male veterans
- Leo Sher, Linda M. Bierer, Janine Flory, Iouri Makotkine, Rachel Yehuda
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- Journal:
- Acta Neuropsychiatrica , First View
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 March 2024, pp. 1-5
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Objective:
Many combat veterans exhibit suicidal ideation and behaviour, but the relationships among experiences occurring during combat deployment and suicidality are still not fully understood. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that harassment during a combat deployment is associated with post-deployment suicidality and testosterone function.
Methods:Male combat veterans who made post-deployment suicide attempts and demographically matched veterans without a history of suicide attempts were enrolled in the study. Demographic and clinical parameters of study participants were assessed and recorded. Study participants were interviewed by a trained clinician using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI) – Relationships within unit scale, the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI), and the Brown–Goodwin Aggression Scale. Free testosterone levels were assessed in morning blood samples.
Results:DRRI harassment scores were higher and free testosterone levels were lower among suicide attempters in comparison with non-attempters. In the whole sample, DRRI harassment scores positively correlated with SSI scores and negatively correlated with free testosterone levels. Free testosterone levels negatively correlated with SSI scores. Aggression scale scores positively correlated with DRRI harassment scores among non-attempters but not among attempters.
Conclusion:Our observations that harassment scores are associated with suicidality and testosterone levels, and suicidality is associated with testosterone levels may indicate that there is a link between deployment harassment, testosterone function and suicidality.
Abuse and Neglect in Childhood: Relationship to Personality Disorder Diagnoses
- Linda M. Bierer, Rachel Yehuda, James Schmeidler, Vivian Mitropoulou, Antonia S. New, Jeremy M. Silverman, Larry J. Siever
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- Journal:
- CNS Spectrums / Volume 8 / Issue 10 / October 2003
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 November 2014, pp. 737-754
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Background:
Childhood history of abuse and neglect has been associated with personality disorders and has been observed in subjects with lifetime histories of suicidality and self-injury. Most of these findings have been generated from inpatient clinical samples.
Methods:This study evaluated self-rated indices of sustained childhood abuse and neglect in an outpatient sample of well-characterized personality disorder subjects (n=182) to determine the relative associations of childhood trauma indices to specific personality disorder diagnoses or clusters and to lifetime history of suicide attempts or gestures. Subjects met criteria for ~2.5 Axis II diagnoses and 24% reported past suicide attempts. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was administered to assess five dimensions of childhood trauma exposure (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect). Logistic regression was employed to evaluate salient predictors among the trauma measures for each cluster, personality disorder, and history of attempted suicide and self-harm. All analyses controlled for gender distribution.
Results:Seventy-eight percent of subjects met dichotomous criteria for some form of childhood trauma; a majority reported emotional abuse and neglect. The dichotomized criterion for global trauma severity was predictive of cluster B, borderline, and antisocial personality disorder diagnoses. Trauma scores were positively associated with cluster A, negatively with cluster C, but were not significantly associated with cluster B diagnoses. Among the specific diagnoses comprising cluster A, paranoid disorder alone was predicted by sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Within cluster B, only antisocial personality disorder showed significant associations with trauma scores, with specific prediction by sexual and physical abuse. For borderline personality disorder, there were gender interactions for individual predictors, with emotional abuse being the only significant trauma predictor, and only in men. History of suicide gestures was associated with emotional abuse in the entire sample and in women only; self-mutilatory behavior was associated with emotional abuse in men.
Conclusion:These results suggest that childhood emotional abuse and neglect are broadly represented among personality disorders, and associated with indices of clinical severity among patients with borderline personality disorder. Childhood sexual and physical abuse are highlighted as predictors of both paranoid and antisocial personality disorders. These results help qualify prior observations of the association of childhood sexual abuse with borderline personality disorder.