Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic

No abstract available

Fertility Regulation

In the past two centuries the proportion of couples using some form of conscious pregnancy-prevention has risen from close to zero to about two-thirds. In European populations this radical change in behaviour occurred largely between 1870 and 1930 without the benefit of highly effective methods. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, the change took place after 1950 since when the global fertility rate has halved from 5.0 births to 2.5 births per woman. In this chapter we describe the controversies surrounding the idea of birth control and the role of early pioneers such as Margaret Sanger; the advances in contraceptive and abortion technologies; the ways in which family planning has been promoted by many governments, particularly in Asia; trends in use of specific methods; the problems of discontinuation of use; and the incidence of unintended pregnancies and abortions

Significant relationship between lifetime alcohol use disorders and suicide attempts in an Australian schizophrenia sample

Objective: Suicide and attempted suicide are common in individuals with schizophrenia, and evidence exists for a link between substance use disorders and suicidality in this disorder. However, alcohol has not been consistently implicated. We examined the relationship between substance use disorders and suicide attempts in schizophrenia.Methods: We recruited a schizophrenia sample in Australia (n = 821) for genetic analyses. We analysed demographic and clinical variables, including substance use disorders, and their relationship to suicide attempts using generalised equation modelling.Results: A significant association was identified between lifetime alcohol abuse/dependence and suicide attempts (OR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.24; p= 0.001) after adjustment for potential confounders, but not between cannabis abuse/dependence and suicide attempts, nor between other illicit drug abuse/dependence and suicide attempts. Polysubstance abuse/dependence was also not implicated.Conclusions: These results suggest that the presence of alcohol abuse/dependence may be a risk factor for suicide attempts in individuals with schizophrenia, independent of comorbid substance abuse/dependence

Testing the Statutory Coherence Hypothesis: The Implementation of Federal Family Planning Policy in the States

This article tests the statutory coherence hypothesis, derived from the Sabatier and Mazmanian framework for policy implementation, within the context of the national family planning program. The statutory coherence hypothesis states that effective implementation is a function of the extent to which a statute coherently structures the implementation process. The equitable distribution of statutory benefits is defined as a condition of effective implementation. During the period of study (Fiscal Years 1976-1981), national family planning policy was embedded in four separate statutes. Implementation was operationalized in terms of interstate variation in per capita family planning expenditures under each of the four grant programs. Statutory coherence scores were developed for each of the four enactments. The findings of this study support the statutory coherence hypothesis. Both the theoretical significance and the policy implications of these results are discussed.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline