Child abuse and the prevalence of suicide attempts among those reporting suicide ideation

OBJECTIVE: Victims of child abuse may be at increased risk of acting on suicide ideation, although this has not been empirically tested. We estimated the risk of suicide attempts associated with child abuse among individuals who reported suicide ideation. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from the population-based Canadian Community Health Survey Mental Health (n = 828). This population-based survey included various structured questionnaires, including the Composite International Diagnostic Interview to assess mental illness and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. RESULTS: Approximately 80 % of those who attempted suicide had a history of child abuse. Poor mental health, financial difficulties, poor coping skills, and reporting a suicide plan were also associated with an increased prevalence of attempting suicide; adjusted for these factors, child abuse was associated with a 1.77-fold increased prevalence (95 % CI 0.93, 3.36) of suicide attempts. CONCLUSIONS: Most individuals who attempt suicide experience child abuse, and worse health and social functioning. Adopting a life-course perspective to understand trajectories of suicide risk factors may inform prevention and treatment

Child abuse and the prevalence of suicide attempts among those reporting suicide ideation

OBJECTIVE: Victims of child abuse may be at increased risk of acting on suicide ideation, although this has not been empirically tested. We estimated the risk of suicide attempts associated with child abuse among individuals who reported suicide ideation. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from the population-based Canadian Community Health Survey Mental Health (n = 828). This population-based survey included various structured questionnaires, including the Composite International Diagnostic Interview to assess mental illness and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. RESULTS: Approximately 80 % of those who attempted suicide had a history of child abuse. Poor mental health, financial difficulties, poor coping skills, and reporting a suicide plan were also associated with an increased prevalence of attempting suicide; adjusted for these factors, child abuse was associated with a 1.77-fold increased prevalence (95 % CI 0.93, 3.36) of suicide attempts. CONCLUSIONS: Most individuals who attempt suicide experience child abuse, and worse health and social functioning. Adopting a life-course perspective to understand trajectories of suicide risk factors may inform prevention and treatment

Self-reported losses versus actual losses in online gambling: an empirical study

Many research findings in the gambling studies field rely on self-report data. A very small body of empirical research also suggests that when using self-report, players report their gambling losses inaccurately. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the differences between objective and subjective gambling spent data by comparing gambler’s actual behavioral tracking data with their self-report data over a 1-month period. A total of 17,742 Norwegian online gamblers were asked to participate in an online survey. Of those surveyed, 1335 gamblers answered questions relating to gambling expenditure that could be compared with their actual gambling behavior. The study found that the estimated loss self-reported by gamblers was correlated with the actual objective loss and that players with higher losses tended to have more difficulty estimating their gambling expenditure (i.e., players who spent more money gambling also appeared to have more trouble estimating their expenses accurately). Overall, the findings demonstrate that caution is warranted when using self-report data relating to amount of money spent gambling in any studies that are totally reliant on self-report data

Parents’ marital status and child physical abuse potential: the mediation of depression symptoms

Informed by a social interactional framework of stress and parenting, the aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of depression symptoms on the asso- ciation between parents’ marital status (married and divorced parents) and child physical abuse potential, in a Portuguese community sample. It was hypothesized that the possible observed differences between divorced and married parents in the child physical abuse potential would be explained by their depression symptoms. Parents (N = 892) were assessed in their marital status, severity of depression symptoms and child physical abuse potential. Results showed that, when compared with married parents, divorced parents had higher child physical abuse potential. However, parents’ depression symptomatology was found as a mediator of the effect of marital status differences on child physical abuse potential. The influence of the status of divorced parents on the increase of child physical abuse potential was explained by the increase of the parents’ depression symptoms. This finding suggested that parents’ divorced status had no longer an effect on child physical abuse potential when parents’ depression symptomatology was tested as a mediator vari- able. The present mediation model explained 47 % of the variability in the child physical abuse potential score. Prac- tical implications of these findings for prevention and psy- chological intervention are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anxiety and depressive symptoms related to parenthood in a large Norwegian community sample: the HUNT2 study

The study compared anxiety and depression prevalence between parents and non-parents in a society with family- and parenthood-friendly social politics, controlling for family status and family history, age, gender, education and social class. All participants aged 30–49 (N = 24,040) in the large, non-sampled Norwegian HUNT2 community health study completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales. The slightly elevated anxiety and depression among non-parents compared to parents in the complete sample was not confirmed as statistically significant within any subgroups. Married parents and (previously unmarried) cohabiting parents did not differ in portraying low anxiety and depression prevalence. Anxiety was associated with single parenthood, living alone or being divorced, while elevated depression was found only among those living alone. Burdening selection and cultural/political context are suggested as interpretative perspectives on the contextual and personal influences on the complex relationship between parenthood and mental health

Effect of within-session breaks in play on responsible gambling behaviour during sustained monetary losses

Rapid, continuous gambling formats are associated with higher risks for gambling-related harm in terms of excessive monetary and time expenditure. The current study investigated the effect on gambling response latency and persistence, of a new form of within-game intervention that required players to actively engage in response inhibition via monitoring for stop signals. Seventy-four experienced electronic gaming machine gamblers, with a mean age of 35.28 years, were recruited to participate in a rapid, continuous gambling task where real money could be won and lost. Participants were randomly allocated to either the control condition where no intervention was presented, or either a condition with a passive three minute break in play or a condition with a three minute intervention that required participants to engage in response inhibition. Although there was no main effect for experimental condition on gambling persistence, both interventions were effective in elevating response latency during a period of sustained losses. It was concluded that within-game interventions that create an enforced break in play are effective in increasing response latency between bets during periods of sustained losses. Furthermore, within-game interventions that require active involvement appear to be more effective in increasing response latency than standard, passive breaks in play

The places parents go: understanding the breadth, scope, and experiences of activity spaces for parents

The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9690-yNeighborhood environments are related to parenting behaviors, which in turn have a life-long effect on children’s health and well-being. Activity spaces, which measure individual routine patterns of movement, may be helpful in assessing how physical and social environments shape parenting. In this study we use qualitative data and GIS mapping from four California cities to examine parental activity spaces. Parents described a number of factors that shape their activity spaces including caregiving status, the age of their children, and income. Parental activity spaces also varied between times (weekends vs. weekdays) and places (adult-only vs. child-specific places). Knowing how to best capture and study parental activity spaces could identify mechanisms by which environmental factors influence parenting behaviors and child health

Addressing risk factors for child abuse among high risk pregnant women: design of a randomised controlled trial of the nurse family partnership in Dutch preventive health care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Low socio-economic status combined with other risk factors affects a person's physical and psychosocial health from childhood to adulthood. The societal impact of these problems is huge, and the consequences carry on into the next generation(s). Although several studies show these consequences, only a few actually intervene on these issues. In the United States, the Nurse Family Partnership focuses on high risk pregnant women and their children. The main goal of this program is primary prevention of child abuse. The Netherlands is the first country outside the United States allowed to translate and culturally adapt the Nurse Family Partnership into VoorZorg. The aim of the present study is to assess whether VoorZorg is as effective in the Netherland as in the United States.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study consists of three partly overlapping phases. Phase 1 was the translation and cultural adaptation of Nurse Family Partnership and the design of a two-stage selection procedure. Phase 2 was a pilot study to examine the conditions for implementation. Phase 3 is the randomized controlled trial of VoorZorg compared to the care as usual. Primary outcome measures were smoking cessation during pregnancy and after birth, birth outcomes, child development, child abuse and domestic violence. The secondary outcome measure was the number of risk factors present.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study shows that the Nurse Family Partnership was successfully translated and culturally adapted into the Dutch health care system and that this program fulfills the needs of high-risk pregnant women. We hypothesize that this program will be effective in addressing risk factors that operate during pregnancy and childhood and compromise fetal and child development.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN16131117">ISRCTN16131117</a></p

Rhaponticum acaule (L) DC essential oil: chemical composition, in vitro antioxidant and enzyme inhibition properties

Background: α-glucosidase is a therapeutic target for diabetes mellitus (DM) and α-glucosidase inhibitors play a vital role in the treatments for the disease. Furthermore, xanthine oxidase (XO) is a key enzyme that catalyzes hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid which at high levels can lead to hyperuricemia which is an important cause of gout. Pancreatic lipase (PL) secreted into the duodenum plays a key role in the digestion and absorption of fats. For its importance in lipid digestion, PL represents an attractive target for obesity prevention. Methods: The flowers essential oil of Rhaponticum acaule (L) DC (R. acaule) was characterized using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antioxidant activities of R. acaule essential oil (RaEO) were also determined using 2,2’-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), reducing power, phosphomolybdenum, and DNA nicking assays. The inhibitory power of RaEO against α-glucosidase, xanthine oxidase and pancreatic lipase was evaluated. Enzyme kinetic studies using Michaelis-Menten and the derived Lineweaver-Burk (LB) plots were performed to understand the possible mechanism of inhibition exercised by the components of this essential oil. Results: The result revealed the presence of 26 compounds (97.4%). The main constituents include germacrene D (49.2%), methyl eugenol (8.3%), (E)-β-ionone (6.2%), β-caryophyllene (5.7%), (E,E)-α-farnesene (4.2%), bicyclogermacrene (4.1%) and (Z)-α-bisabolene (3.7%). The kinetic inhibition study showed that the essential oil demonstrated a strong α-glucosidase inhibiton and it was a mixed inhibitor. On the other hand, our results evidenced that this oil exhibited important xanthine oxidase inhibitory effect, behaving as a non-competitive inhibitor. The essential oil inhibited the turkey pancreatic lipase, with maximum inhibition of 80% achieved at 2 mg/mL. Furthermore, the inhibition of turkey pancreatic lipase by RaEO was an irreversible one. Conclusion: The results revealed that the RaEO is a new promising potential source of antioxidant compounds, endowed with good practical applications for human health. Keywords: α-glucosidase, Antioxidant activity, Chemical composition, Pancreatic lipase inhibition, Rhaponticum acaule essential oil, Xanthine oxidase

Treatment Seeking Problem Gamblers: Characteristics of Individuals who Offend to Finance Gambling

The relationship between Crime and gambling is well established, however few studies have examined offending specifically to finance gambling within a UK gambling treatment-seeking population. 1226 treatment-seeking gamblers completed the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), Patient Health Questionnaire, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 item scale, and were asked whether they had committed any illegal behaviours to finance gambling. 42.5 % reported offending behaviour. A greater proportion of the offending group were single or married/ cohabiting, had a lower-level qualifications, lower income, had experienced childhood abuse, family mental health problems and gambling related harms compared to the non-offending group. Offenders reported higher anxiety, depression and disordered gambling scores. Disordered gamblers who offend make up a discrete and complex subgroup with distinct vulnerabilities. Findings will be useful to clinicians involved in the assessment and management of problematic gambling. Gamblers who offend to finance gambling may have different treatment needs and treatment providers should administer appropriate clinical interventions to address vulnerabilities