ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This audit examined the demographics of Indigenous Australians dying by suicide in the Kimberley region of Western Australia during the period 2005-2014. METHODS: This is a de-identified retrospective audit of reported suicide deaths provided to Kimberley Mental Health and Drug Service during the period 2005-2014. Variables such as age, sex, method of suicide, previous engagement with mental health services, locality and ethnicity were assessed. RESULTS: Indigenous suicide rates in the Kimberley region have dramatically increased in the last decade. There is also an overall trend upwards in Indigenous youth suicide and Indigenous female suicides. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the need for culturally informed, and youth focussed, suicide prevention interventions within the Kimberley region.
Subject(s)
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/psychology , Suicide/ethnology , Suicide/trends , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Female , Humans , Male , Mental Health/ethnology , Mental Health Services/statistics & numerical data , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Sex Distribution , Western Australia/epidemiology , Young Adult , Suicide PreventionABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to examine earliest memories in patients with a mental disorder and their clinical relevance to diagnosis and treatment. METHOD: A semi-structured early memory questionnaire was developed and 50 patients with anxiety, depression or a psychotic disorder were interviewed. A thematic analysis was conducted to extract dominant themes from the qualitative data. RESULTS: Family events, play, and receiving attention were dominant themes of pleasant memories, while unpleasant memories consisted of fear-provoking situations, abuse/violence, and death-related themes. Participants were able to recall the feelings they had experienced at the time of their earliest memories and most participants stated that their first memories had significant impact in their lives. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this exploratory study suggest that earliest memories may be of clinical significance for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in psychiatry.
Subject(s)
Child Abuse/psychology , Emotions , Mental Disorders/psychology , Mental Recall , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Child, Preschool , Fear , Female , Happiness , Humans , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Surveys and Questionnaires , Western AustraliaABSTRACT
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Third-wave cognitive-behaviour therapies such as dialectical behaviour therapy have demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of personality disorders, which are considered difficult to treat. These therapies typically incorporate some component of mindfulness practice. The current study examines current applications and effectiveness of mindfulness to the treatment of personality disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: The majority of evidence available focuses on borderline personality disorder, and highlights positive associations between mindfulness practice and reduced psychiatric and clinical symptoms, less emotional reactivity, and less impulsivity. Fewer studies examine the other personality disorders, though emerging case studies have applied mindfulness techniques to treatment with antisocial, avoidant, paranoid, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders. SUMMARY: Mindfulness is a promising clinical tool for the treatment of personality disorders, and appears to be adaptable to the unique features of different types of personality disorders. However, further empirical research with greater methodological rigour is required to clarify the effectiveness of mindfulness as a specific skill component, and to identify the underlying mechanisms that contribute to therapeutic change.
Subject(s)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/methods , Mindfulness , Personality Disorders/psychology , Personality Disorders/therapy , Antisocial Personality Disorder/psychology , Antisocial Personality Disorder/therapy , Borderline Personality Disorder/psychology , Borderline Personality Disorder/therapy , Compulsive Personality Disorder/psychology , Compulsive Personality Disorder/therapy , Emotions , Humans , Impulsive Behavior , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychology , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/therapyABSTRACT
Patient-focused research, which uses clinical characteristics to predict outcomes, is a field in which information technology has been effectively integrated with practice. The present research used touch-screen technology to monitor the daily self-report measures of 1,308 consecutive inpatients and day patients participating in a 2-week cognitive-behavioral therapy group. Providing regular feedback was effective in reducing symptoms for patients at risk of poor outcomes (Newnham, Hooke, & Page, 2010b). The use of touch screens in psychiatric monitoring encourages a collaborative dialogue between patients and therapists and promotes engagement in the process of progress monitoring and treatment evaluation.
Subject(s)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Mental Disorders/therapy , Telemedicine/methods , User-Computer Interface , Data Collection , Electronic Health Records , Feedback , Humans , Inpatients , Outpatients , Professional-Patient Relations , Psychotherapy, Group , Self-Assessment , Software , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
The aim of this investigation was to explore the degree to which specific subsets of autistic-like traits relate to performance on the Embedded Figures Test (Witkin et al. in A manual for the embedded figures test. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA, 1971). In the first group-based investigation with this focus, students were selected for their extreme scores (either high or low) on each of the 'Social Skills' and 'Details/Patterns' factors of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al. in J Austim Dev Disord 31:5-17, 2001). The resulting 2 × 2 factorial design permitted examination of the degree to which the social and non-social autistic-like traits separately relate to EFT performance. Surprisingly, in two studies, superior EFT performance was found to relate only to greater social difficulty, suggesting that the local processing bias in autism may be linked specifically to the social deficits.
