Suicide and personality

Objective: Suicide is one of the most important public health problems. Suicide, which needs to be discussed as a part of preventive mental health, has a wide range of causes. Temperament is genetic and structural behavioral characteristics that individuals have in their nature and cannot change for a whole-of-life. On the other hand, character is discussed as a concept, which is affected by education and environmental factors and can change in the course of time. In this study, we aimed to determine the discriminating personality characteristic of suicide attempters compared to healthy control subjects. Methods: Attempted suicide cases (n=69) who applied to Gaziantep University, Medicine Faculty, Emergency Service between May 2003 and August 2005 and who were asked to be assessed as psychiatrically were assessed according to DSM-IV diagnosis criterion and Tempera-ment and Character Inventory (TCI-240 items), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were employed to these cases and personality profiles were compared to control group including age and gender matched individuals who do not have any lifetime history of mental disorders (n=77) Results: Suicide attempters showed higher scores in harm avoidance, self-transcendence and lower scores in self-directedness, cooperativeness, and reward dependence when compared to controls. Beck hopelessness scale is positively correlated with harm avoidance score and reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness scores negatively correlated in suicide group. In attempted suicide group, when we compared TCI scores within genders, responsibility scores was higher in men whereas, fear of uncertainty, virtuousness, and mercifulness subscores were higher in women. As for control group sentimentality, attachment and empathy subscores were higher in women. Conclusion: Temperament and character features of suicide attempters show significant differences compared with healthy control group. Determining personality profile among suicide attempters may be useful in employing different treatment approaches. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2008; 9:232-237

Increased mean platelet volume in patients with panic disorder

Mehmet Hanifi Kokacya,1 Umit Sertan Copoglu,1 Yüksel Kivrak,2 Mustafa Ari,1 Musa Sahpolat,1 Kemal Türker Ulutas3 1Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, 2Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kafkas University, Kars, 3Department of Biochemistry, Kadirli State Hospital, Osmaniye, Turkey Objective: The relationship between platelet activation and psychiatric disorders has been shown in previous work. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a measure of platelet size and a good indicator of platelet activity, which increases in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). It is known that anxiety is a considerable factor in the etiology of mortality in CVDs. The aim of the present study was to investigate any probable difference in the MPV of patients with panic disorder (PD).Methods: Sixty-one drug-free patients, aged 18–65 years and diagnosed with PD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, were included in the study, along with 63 healthy age- and sex-matched volunteers. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated and MPV measured for each subject.Results: The MPV was found to be higher in the PD group compared to the control group (P=0.004). There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of platelet count or BMI.Conclusion: Alterations in platelet activity may be a reflection of abnormal 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) 1A receptor function in the central nervous system of subjects with a diagnosis of PD. These findings may elucidate the relationship between CVDs and PD. The findings of the present study suggest that MPV is increased in PD patients. Keywords: mean platelet volume, panic disorder, anxiet