Infertility problems and mental health symptoms in a community-based sample: depressive symptoms among infertile men, but not women

Most researchers agree that men’s and women’s experiences of infertility are fundamentally different, and impacts upon the nature of psychological distress encountered. However, design flaws, including non-random samples unrepresentative of the general population, compromise many existing studies. Data derived from a random general community sample provides prevalence of current infertility, and permits examination of longitudinal associations between mental health symptoms and infertility among 1,978 participants aged 28-32 years. In the previous 12-months, infertility was experienced by 2.1% and 5.4% partnered men and women. Infertility independently predicted depressive symptomatology in men, and anxiety symptoms among women. Gender differences were sustained, even controlling for prior depression and anxiety. Health professionals are encouraged to proactively enquire about affective symptoms experienced by both women and men with infertility problems

Baseline factors predictive of serious suicidality at follow-up: findings focussing on age and gender from a community-based study

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/10/41Background: Although often providing more reliable and informative findings relative to other study designs, longitudinal investigations of prevalence and predictors of suicidal behaviour remain uncommon. This paper compares 12-month prevalence rates for suicidal ideation and suicide attempt at baseline and follow-up; identifies new cases and remissions; and assesses the capacity of baseline data to predict serious suicidality at follow-up, focusing on age and gender differences. Methods: 6,666 participants aged 20-29, 40-49 and 60-69 years were drawn from the first (1999-2001) and second (2003-2006) waves of a general population survey. Analyses involved multivariate logistic regression. Results: At follow-up, prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt had decreased (8.2%-6.1%, and 0.8%-0.5%, respectively). However, over one quarter of those reporting serious suicidality at baseline still experienced it four years later. Females aged 20-29 never married or diagnosed with a physical illness at follow-up were at greater risk of serious suicidality (OR = 4.17, 95% CI = 3.11-5.23; OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 2.09-4.26, respectively). Males aged 40-49 not in the labour force had increased odds of serious suicidality (OR = 4.08, 95% CI = 1.6-6.48) compared to their equivalently-aged and employed counterparts. Depressed/anxious females aged 60-69 were nearly 30% more likely to be seriously suicidal. Conclusions: There are age and gender differentials in the risk factors for suicidality. Life-circumstances contribute substantially to the onset of serious suicidality, in addition to symptoms of depression and anxiety. These findings are particularly pertinent to the development of effective population-based suicide prevention strategies.A Kate Fairweather-Schmidt, Kaarin J Anstey, Agus Salim and Bryan Rodger

A longitudinal study of midage women with indicators of disordered eating

This longitudinal study of midage women has two main aims: to examine the effect of disordered eating (DE) on quality of life (QoL) among women, including a comparison with a younger cohort and to investigate the mediating roles of both depressive symptoms and social support on the longitudinal relationship between DE and QoL as potential mechanisms of action. We used self-report data from six waves of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health over 14 years. A total of 12,338 women participating in the midage cohort (aging from 45–50 to 59–64) provided self-report indications of DE at Surveys 1 and 2, and QoL (SF-36 component scales—mental [MCS] and physical [PCS]) at Surveys 2–6. DE was reported by 10.98% of the women; this group also reported significantly poorer mental and physical QoL than those without DE, and this effect was sustained over time. Comparison with a parallel analysis of a younger cohort of women showed that the effect on midage women’s physical QoL is greater than that of the younger women. The relationships between baseline DE and changes in QoL (both physical and mental) over time were mediated by levels of depressive symptoms and of social support over time. This study underscores the significant effect of DE on QoL in midage, an effect which is partially or fully mediated by depressive symptoms or social support. Well-being of midage women with indicators of DE needs to be supported by tailoring prevention and interventions activities specifically for this group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved

Psychological Resilience Provides No Independent Protection From Suicidal Risk

BACKGROUND Little is known about the role of resilience in the likelihood of suicidal ideation (SI) over time. AIMS We examined the association between resilience and SI in a young-adult cohort over 4 years. Our objectives were to determine whether resilience was associated with SI at follow-up or, conversely, whether SI was associated with lowered resilience at follow-up. METHOD Participants were selected from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, aged 28-32 years at the first time point and 32-36 at the second. Multinomial, linear, and binary regression analyses explored the association between resilience and SI over two time points. Models were adjusted for suicidality risk factors. RESULTS While unadjusted analyses identified associations between resilience and SI, these effects were fully explained by the inclusion of other suicidality risk factors. CONCLUSION Despite strong cross-sectional associations, resilience and SI appear to be unrelated in a longitudinal context, once risk/resilience factors are controlled for. As independent indicators of psychological well-being, suicidality and resilience are essential if current status is to be captured. However, the addition of other factors (e.g., support, mastery) makes this association tenuous. Consequently, resilience per se may not be protective of SI

Does resilience predict suicidality? A lifespan analysis

Participants (n = 7485) from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project, a population sample from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, were stratified into three age cohorts (20-24, 40-44, 60-64 years of age). Binary Logistic regression explored the association between resilience and suicidality. Results Across age cohorts, low resilience was associated with an increased risk for suicidality. However, this effect was subsequently made redundant in models that fully adjusted for other risk factors for suicidality amongst young and old adults. Conclusions Resilience is associated with suicidality across the lifespan, but only those in midlife continued to report increased likelihood of suicidality in fully-adjusted models