Family and psychosocial characteristics of adolescents with suicide attempt: data from a clinical population study

Introduction: For various reasons, systematic study of suicidal behaviour among Greek adolescents remains limited.Aim: To investigate the family and other psycho-social characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters within the rapidly changing socio-cultural context.Population: Patients referred to our Unit after admission for attempted suicide. Up to date, 160 adolescents (16.3% males and 83.7% females), aged 12-19 (mean age 15.14) have been included in our study.Method: As part of a larger continuing research on attempted suicide among adolescents, the present study focuses on family and psycho-social parameters. Through the use of a specifically designed protocol, recorded data are codified and stored in the SPSS for statistical treatment.Results: By order of frequency of appearance, the recorded parameters are: severe dysfunction or impairment of family context (60.6%), school failure/drop (58.1%), adolescent-parent conflict (53.8%), residential changes (52.5%), family schemes other than “intact family” (39.4%), mental health problems among family members (38.1%), disappointment from peer relationships (35.6%), somatic illness among family members (32.5%), cultural particulars (27%), parents’ separation/divorce (25%), followed by other less frequent but not necessarily less important parameters.Conclusions: While confirming some steadily present parameters, our study reveals newly emerging ones, reflecting changes in the family structure and in the wider socio-cultural context, which should be addressed and studied more systematically

Assessment of visuo-spatial memory in patients with schizophrenia using the Location Learning Test

Recent studies give good evidence that memory impairment is one of the most profound cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Multiple meta-analytic studies have demonstrated impairments especially in working and episodic memory including both its verbal and visual aspects. The scope of the present study was to examine the short and long term visuo-spatial memory in free immediate and delay recall conditions in patients with schizophrenia. We used Learning Location Test (LLT), a brief test designed initially to measure visuo-spatial recall and learning in older adults with possible dementia, as a new approach to the assessment of visuo-spatial memory and learning impairment in schizophrenia. We studied 30 pa­tients with schizophrenia in comparison with 30 normal subjects matched with socio-demographic parameters. Patients with schizophrenia performed significantly lower in all tasks of LLT compared to the healthy subjects. The comparison between the two diagnostic groups of patients (paranoid and non paranoid patients) did not show any statistically significant difference regarding the three main index of LLT. Furthermore, the results indicate that patients have a tendency to form two separate groups: one achieving “good scores” and one achieving “very bad scores”. In order to enhance the validity of the test and to reveal the characteristics of the two subgroups, further study in this population is needed