[About epidemiology of suicidal behavior: an investigation in the health-service district of Brixen]. / Zur Epidemiologie suizidalen Verhaltens: Eine Untersuchung im Gesundheitsbezirk Brixen.

OBJECTIVE: Aim of this investigation is to find out how many parasuicids as well as suicides are commited and which epidemiological characteristics (sex, age, substance addictions, relationships, job, life-events and suicide attempts in past) show people who commit suicide, and people who commiting parasuicide. After that we try to find variables predicting a suicide or variables what show a vulnerability to commit suicide. METHODS: Clinicans assess patients who commit parasuicide by the WHO-Parasuicide-Monitoring-Questionnaire and suicide victims by interview with the bereaved. Afterwards, data are assimilated and aggregated. RESULTS: In this period a mean of 37 (SD = 7.78) parasuicides and 6.32 (SD = 3.79) suicides happened yearly. The sample shows different characteristics in age, sex, life-events in the run-up to the action, job situation and parasuicide(s) in past. No differences were found between relationship and substance abuse/addiction and regarding both types of suicidal behavior. CONCLUSION: The incidence concerning suicide is slightly lower; the incidence with regard to parasuicide is lower than in other samples. Demographic variables show that people commiting suicide differ from those who commit parasuicide.

[The preconditions of postpartum dysphoria]. / Die Bedingungsvariablen der postpartalen Dysphorie.

Postpartum dysphoria (Baby Blues) is a puerperal-disease of mothers who have recently given birth; its prevalence in western industrialized countries ranges from 26 to 85% The baby-blues may begin during the first week after birth, lasts a few days and disappears without any medical treatment. Therefore there is still little research dealing with this phenomenon. The present study was carried out in Brixen, Italy, in the framework of the international Munich-Postpartum-Project and was done by means of a questionnaire. It showed that these women who had to face an insecure social environment after hospital discharge, had symptoms of a dysphoria. For that reason the Blues seems to be a phenomenon of socially distressed women.

Life satisfaction and active coping style are important predictors of recovery from surgery.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of psychological factors on the recovery of surgical patients and to explore whether there are any psychological variables other than anxiety that have a significant influence on recovery from surgery. METHODS: The participants were 112 adult patients undergoing a variety of surgical procedures. On the day prior to surgery, the Freiburg Personality Questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a coping schedule and the Questionnaire of Social Support were used to measure psychological parameters including personality, anxiety, coping and social support. The quality of the surgical outcome was rated by two independent and blinded surgeons by the length of hospital stay and analgesia and sedation requirements. The ratings controlled for the diagnosis, type of operation, intraoperative complications, postoperative medical problems and health limitations independent of the surgical procedure. RESULTS: Patients who had a complicated recovery were found to have reduced life satisfaction and lower situation-specific self-control expectations. Structural equation modeling revealed direct relationships between recovery from surgery and personality dimensions with the strongest correlations to life satisfaction, extraversion and attainment orientation. CONCLUSION: The data from this study suggests that valid predictions of the course of postoperative recovery need to take into account personality and coping behaviour orientated data as well as clinical variables. No direct influence on recovery could be predicted from preoperative state anxiety, but it seems likely that state anxiety may influence coping behaviour and that it is this that appears to have a significant impact to surgical recovery.