Suicide is a complex phenomenon, an outcome of environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors. Proteins, like reelin, involved in important processes in brain plasticity, cell-cell interactions, synaptogenesis, and in neuron migration, seem to be interesting candidate genes for study of suicide.

Many studies have shown associations of reelin gene with different mental disorders, which are often implicated in suicidal behaviour, however there are no studies performed on suicide explicitly.

Determination of association of suicide and three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in reelin gene (rs2965087, rs7341475, and rs362691).

We performed qRT-PCR (Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction) genotyping analysis of SNPs and alcohol analysis on 396 suicide victims and 211 controls. Statistical analysis of genotype and allele frequency distributions between groups of suicide victims and controls was performed. There was additional analysis of different subgroups (e.g. male, female, violent and non-violent suicide).

In case of functional polymorphism rs7341475 (Val997Leu) we observed statistically significant lower frequency of common allele G in female suicide victims relative to female controls. Contradictory, in male suicide victims we observed higher polymorphic allele A relative to male controls, but it was statistically insignificant. Analysis of other two polymorphisms gave no statistically significant results.

Present investigation confirmed association between rs7341475 in reelin gene and female suicide victims in Slovenian population. This result showed that reelin gene is an important candidate gene for further investigations in association with suicidal behaviour.

Besides many, suicidal behaviour has socio-cultural and historical determinants. The purpose of this study was to determinate whether differences in suicide rates and attitude towards self-harm among different nations are reflecting in the lyrics of the national anthems.

Word use and content analysis were used to compare anthems of 6 different countries with different suicide rates. The analyses were conducted by the members of the study group according to an assessment tool, developed for this study based on Weintraub's method. After careful analysis, results were compared with national suicide rates.

The English and the Canadian anthem contain the most positive contents (like positive labelings, wishes or emotions), 17.24% and 10.90%, respectively, without any negative or aggressive hints. Glory was characteristic to most anthems (mainly to the German: 16.66%), but in the US anthem it was related with aggression (3.61%). Compared to these, the Polish, but mainly the Hungarian anthem contains more negative labelings (4.71%) and emotions (1.88%) while mentioning minimal glorious contents (1.80%).

The assessment of word use and content analysis of the anthems of different countries revealed specific differences between national attitudes. Furthermore, anthems of countries with lower suicide rates tend to contain more positive contents, while with higher suicide rates, especially the Hungarian showed more ambivalence, denial, loss, or even aggressive hints. Our study is limited by the low number of anthems included in the analysis. In the future, more complete analyses of different anthems are planned to strengthen our preliminary data.

Depression is present in 35% of adolescents who commit suicide. It is crucial that we identify which of these depressed adolescents are at greatest suicide risk. Suicide attempts are strongly associated with suicide risk, and therefore commonly used as a proxy measure. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is often seen as being less serious than suicide attempts.

To determine which clinical and psychosocial factors in depressed adolescents at baseline predict both suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury over 28 weeks follow-up.

Adolescents with major depressive disorder (n = 164) taking part in the Adolescent Depression Antidepressants and Psychotherapy Trial were evaluated. Clinical symptoms, family and friendship functioning, suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury were recorded at baseline.

Suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm were measured during 28 weeks follow-up.

High suicidality, non-suicidal self-injury and poor family function at entry were significant independent predictors of suicide attempts occurring over 28 weeks follow-up. NSSI was the strongest predictor of suicide attempts (adjusted OR = 3.2, p = 0.006). NSSI over follow-up was independently predicted by non-suicidal self-injury (adjusted OR = 20, p < 0.0005), increased hopelessness, anxiety disorder, and being younger and female at entry.

Although Internet has become an important source for affected people seeking suicide information, the connection between Internet searches for suicide information and suicidal death remains largely unknown.

To evaluate the association between suicide and Internet searches trends for 37 suicide-related terms representing major known risks of suicide.

To identify the relationship between Internet search trend and suicide death in Taiwan.

This study analyzes suicide death data in Taipei city, Taiwan and corresponding local Internet search trend data provided by Google Insights for Search during the period from January 2004 to December 2009. The investigation uses cross-correlation analysis to estimate the temporal relationship between suicide and Internet search trends and multiple linear regression analysis to identify significant factors associated with suicide from a pool of search trend data that either coincides or precedes the suicide death.

Results show that a set of suicide-related search terms, the trends of which either temporally coincided or preceded trends of suicide data, were associated with suicide death. These search factors varied among different suicide samples. Searches for “major depression” and “divorce” accounted for, at most, 30.2% of the variance in suicide data. When considering only leading suicide trends, searches for “divorce” and the pro-suicide term “complete guide of suicide,” accounted for 22.7% of variance in suicide data.

Appropriate filtering and detection of potentially harmful source in keyword-driven search results by search engine providers may be a reasonable strategy to reduce suicide deaths.

Intimate Partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem associated with numerous short- and long-term mental health consequences, most commonly, PTSD and depression.

The principal aims of our research are to assess the incidence of depression and PTSD in a sample of women exposed to IPV and to analyze the correlation between the main sociodemographic characteristics of affected women and the typology of domestic violence.

A sample of 31 women exposed to IPV, recruited by an anti-violence centre, has been examined with a clinical interview and assessment tools (Davidson Trauma Scale, Hamilton Depression Scale, Conflict Tate Scale- 2).

Depression is present in 83, 87% of affected woman, while PTSD in 77.42% of cases. A higher social status correlates with a lower prevalence of sexual coercion (r = 0.45 p < 0.05). The number of children correlates positively with physical violence (r = 0.43 p < 0.05) and negatively with psychological violence (r = −0.39 p < 0.05). A relevant result of the correlation analysis was the strong, positive association between depression and psychological violence (r = 0.36 p < 0.05). The analysis of our data has found significant associations between IPV during pregnancy and scale scores of psychological violence (p = 0.03) and physical violence (p = 0.01) on the CTS-2.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly impacts women mental and physical wellbeing and therefore represents a worldwide public health problem.

Women with experience of missing family members had significantly higher levels of anxiety (χ2 = 21.96, P < 0.001), mean level symptoms of depression (F = 57.4, P < 0.001), and values of PTSD scores (F = 43.2, P < 0.001) than women with no experience of missing family member. In respect to the intensity of somatic symptoms among women with experience of missing members and women with no experience of missing member we found no significant difference (F = 0.21, P = 0.885). Women with experiences of missing sons and husbands showed significantly higher levels of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and symptoms of PTSD than women with experiences of other missing family members (P < 0.001).

The results of this study indicate that women with experience of missing family members have a higher risk for developing depression, anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder than women with no experience of missing family members.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress during the postpartum period of women and examine the associated factors of these psychiatric disorders.

A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out at the Primary Health Care (PHC)Centers.A representative sample of 2091 pregnant women,appoached 1,659 women (79.3%) expressed their consent.

The study was based on questionnaire covering socio-demographic, depression, anxiety and stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Beck Depression Inventory-(BDI-II).

The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 18.6% 13.1% and 8.7% respectively. Multivariable analysis showed that maternal education below secondary level (Adjusted OR 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.6), being a housewife (AOR 1.3, 95%CI:1.1-1.6), lack of family support (AOR 1.7,95%CI: 1.3-2.3), unplanned pregnancy (AOR 2.0, 95%CI: 1.6-2.6), no antenatal care (AOR 1.4, 95%CI:1.1-1.8), C-Section delivery (AOR 1.4, 95%CI: 1.1-1.9), and un-satisfaction in marital life (AOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.4) were significantly more likely to experience post natal depression as compared to women above secondary education, working outside home, have strong family support, planned pregnancy, got antenatal care, vaginal delivery, and satisfied with marital life. Similarly, women with lack of family support, unplanned pregnancy, no antenatal care and c section delivery were also more likely at risk of developing post natal anxiety. In contrast, maternal age >30yrs, education below secondary and unsatisfaction in marital life were factors associated with development of post natal stress.

The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was considered high than Western countries.

Women with a history of bipolar disorder or postpartum psychosis are at extremely high risk of relapse postpartum. Although lithium prophylaxis has demonstrated efficacy in reducing postpartum relapse, the timing of prophylaxis remains controversial. Here we evaluate the use of lithium during pregnancy compared to initiation postpartum in women at high risk for postpartum psychosis.

In total, 76 pregnant women at high risk for postpartum psychosis were referred to our psychiatric outpatient clinic between 2003 and 2010. Women who were medication-free at the time of initial evaluation were advised to start lithium prophylaxis immediately postpartum. In contrast, women already on maintenance lithium during pregnancy were advised to continue this treatment.

All women with a history of psychosis limited to the postpartum period (PP, n = 30) remained stable throughout pregnancy despite being medication-free. In contrast, 23.9% of women with a history of bipolar disorder (BD, n = 46) relapsed during pregnancy, despite the majority using prophylaxis throughout pregnancy. Postpartum relapse was highest in women with BD who experienced mood episodes during pregnancy (63.6%). Remarkably however, none of the 21 women with PP using postpartum prophylaxis relapsed, compared to 44.4% of PP patients who declined lithium prophylaxis.

We recommend initiating prophylactic treatment immediately postpartum in women with a history of psychosis limited to the postpartum period, offering an important clinical advantage by avoiding in utero fetal exposure to prophylactic medication. Additionally, patients with BD require continuous prophylaxis throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period to effectively reduce their peripartum relapse risk.

Vagino-cervical stimulation and orgasm may influence mood since sexual intercourse and orgasm physiologically stimulate the vagal nerve and increase the secretion of oxytocin.

To explain physiopathologic correlations between sexual intercourse and orgasm from one part and women's mood from another part.

A review of the literature published via MedLine is done without any restrictions, using the terms “vagino-cervical stimulation” or “orgasm” in association with “affect” or “mood” or “stress”.

Vagal nerve bypasses the spinal cord in its course to the brain and constitute the afferent pathway stimulating orgasm. Vagal nerve stimulation is an adjunctive long-term treatment of chronic or recurrent depression. Epilepsy patients who have received vagal nerve stimulation have shown improvement in depressive symptoms. Vagal nerve stimulation may activate the release of oxytocin, noradrenalin and serotonin via the stimulation of the tractus solitaris. Vagino-cervical stimulation releases oxytocin into plasma via the Ferguson reflex. Oxytocin's origin is predominantly in neurons of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus that project axons into the posterior pituitary, where they release oxytocin into the systemic circulation in response to vagino-cervical stimulation and orgasm. Studies of brain imaging indicate increased activation at women's orgasm in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray of the midbrain, hippocampus, and the cerebellum. There has been at least one clinical trial showing that daily intranasal oxytocin led to improvements in depressive symptoms and reactivity to stressful life events.

Orgasm and vagino-cervical stimulation affects mood level in women.

Studies have shown that mental health problems during pregnancy have adverse effects on fetal growth. The impact of depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy on the fetus have not yet been examined in Singapore.

To examine the association between mental health problems during the second trimester of pregnancy on the quality of the pregnancy, reflected by birth weight and birth length of the newborn.

This study aims to understand the importance of mental health during pregnancy on the development of the child in an Asian population.

Preliminary data of a prospective cohort study of pregnant women (GUSTO), were followed from pregnancy onwards. At 26 weeks of the pregnancy, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were administered. Data on birth parameters were collected from medical records.

Linear regression analyses of preliminary data show negative correlations between depressive symptoms measured with EPDS (n = 1025, P = 0.54), BDI (n = 1012, P = 0.001), and anxiety symptoms measured with STAI (n = 1023, P = 0.002) and birth length (corrected for gestational age and gender). No associations were found for birth weight.

There is an association between depressive and anxiety symptoms reported at the end of the second trimester of the pregnancy and birth length, but not birth weight, of the newborn. As it is known that fetal length increases mainly in the second trimester, it suggests that stress of the mother influences the development of the fetus during this trimester.

The bibliographical review of differences in mental health according to sex indicates poorer mental health status in women. We wonder whether the same difference is found in male and female nurses.

To verify whether there are differences in mental health between nurses and general population, between male and female nurses.

With two groups of participants (male and female nurses), paired in diverse sociodemographic variables, we propose to verify whether there are differences in mental health.

98 female nurses and 98 male nurses, aged between 22 and 56 years, paired in diverse sociodemographic variables. Mental health was measured with the GHQ-12.

Nurses presented poorer levels of mental health than the general Spanish population (ENS, 2006). Female nurses presented worse levels of mental health. When age groups are formed, these differences do not appear in the sample of middle-aged nurses.

The mental health of nurses is worse than that of the general population. When the sociodemographic conditions of male and females nurses are equaled, the mental health of the female nurses is worse than that of the male nurses in the youngest age groups. The youngest female nurses probably have greater work overload related to their multiple roles (i.e., caring for small children) and their lesser professional maturity. The need to take into account not only the variable sex (differences between men and women) but also the variable gender (related to social norms of masculine/feminine behavior) is revealed.

The development of an optimal approach to ensuring good mental health and prevent health inequities requires more than solely medical solutions.

1. 1. Review negative social determinants - economic conditions, exclusion, language barriers and cultural issues - impacting harmfully on mental health of immigrant Bangladeshi women in London, England.

2. 2. Assess existing policies and services tackling negative social determinants and consequent mental health issues of Bangladeshi women.

Provide recommendations - policies and initiatives - to tackle identified negative social determinants and improve overall mental health status of Bangladeshi women.

1. 1. Analyse arguments concerning impact of negative social determinants and their role in provoking mental health problems.

2. 2. Review available hardcopy and internet literature since WHO 2001 health report - Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope - on mental health status of immigrant Bangladeshi women.

3. 3. Identify priority areas to improve mental health status by tackling negative social determinants and consequent mental health inequalities.

Number of negative social determinants impact upon Bangladeshi women - economic deprivation, cultural distanciation and linguistic difficulties - contribute to increased mental health problems. Support services are available but more is needed. Current services underutilised as many women unaware of them or where/how they might be accessed.

Concerted action required across range of socio-economic areas to reduce negative social determinants leading to increased mental health problems amongst Bangladeshi women. These initiatives should be more effectively promoted through specific media outlets, schools, community gathering points and other institutions.

The Irish government has introduced its fifth successive annual austerity budget with three more planned. These budgets have cut resources and funding to a wide range of social services and programmes negatively impacting upon the social determinants of vulnerable groups including women.

Assess Irish government's resource and budgetary allocation decisions as to how they impact upon the social determinants of women with particular reference to mental health inequality.

1) Analyse how Irish government policies contribute to negative social determinants and women's mental health inequalities and b) what policies the Irish government should implement to eliminate these negative social determinants.

A) review literature and discussion on impact of negative social determinants such as, inter alia, economic insecurity and poverty, on mental health inequities; b) analyse hardcopy and internet materials on how Irish government policies impact on social determinants contributing to mental health inequities amongst women and c) consult, where required, with organisations focusing on women's mental health and inequalities on the negative impact of current polices and the actions required to address them.

Current Irish government policies risk increasing mental health inequalities amongst women, especially those living in economically precarious situations.

The Irish government needs to gender proof its policies particularly when considering policy and budgetary cutbacks in areas that predominantly affect women. The government also needs to introduce more gender-balanced proposals and reverse decisions taken to correct the policies introduced that have disproportionately impacted upon the negative social determinants of women's mental health.

Understanding and managing emotional reactions in pregnancy is a relevant issue for many professionals providing support for pregnant women. Thus, appropriate tools are needed to measure pregnant women's emotions.

A non-verbal method was used to identify the patterns of emotional responses to stimuli related to participants’ current status.

Our aim was to identify the socio-demographic and pregnancy related variables determining pregnant women's emotional responses to pregnancy-related pictures.

253 pregnant women were presented a special selection of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Stimuli related to pregnancy (babies, romantic couples, a scale, social support etc.) were rated on three dimensions: pleasantness, arousal and the capacity to take control over emotional states.

Pleasantness and control over the emotional states in response to the pictures correlated with the length of partner relationship; the level of satisfaction, cohesion and consensus in partner relationship; with maternal tertiary education; with perception of foetal movement, plannedness of pregnancy; the quality and the intensity of prenatal attachment. The level of maternal anxiety and depression correlated negatively with the pleasantness of pregnancy-related pictures, as well as with the level of control over emotional states. No effect was found with maternal age and the number of children.

Socio-demographic and pregnancy-related determinants can have a significant effect on how pregnant women perceive and rate emotional pictures related to pregnancy. A non-verbal method has been developed in order to measure maternal emotional responses during pregnancy.

In the past, some authors postulated that many women with schizophrenia showed signs of “hypoestrogenism”, suggesting that women became psychotic mainly before or during menstruation. Kraepelin created the diagnostic category “Menstrual Psychosis”.

Understand a possible relationship between menopause/estrogens and the development of schizophrenia.

Bibliographic search in Pubmed and textbooks.

Several authors observed a relationship between estrogen levels and psychotic symptoms. Some facts contribute to this hypothesis like late-onset schizophrenia being more frequent in women, a second peak for onset of the disease, psychosis in temporal relationship with ovary surgery, puerperium and oscillations throughout the menstrual cycle, lower doses of antipsychotics during pregnancy.

For some authors, estrogens also exert a “protective” effect over psychotic symptoms, beyond other several known effects on various psychopathological aspects, namely through antidopaminergic actions as well as modulation of apoptosis and improvement of depressive and negative symptoms. Although some evidence confirms this theory, the estrogen hypothesis is not universally accepted, some authors claiming the existence of other biological, emotional and social factors that should be considered in menopause.

The etiology of the gender differences in schizophrenia is not yet well understood, but hormone-gene interactions may explain part of the mechanism. The psychiatric interview should explore menstrual irregularities or galactorrhoea, and, with increasing evidence, serum levels of prolactin and estrogens may become part of the routine tests. In the future, treatment with hormone replacement therapy may be a possibility for these patients.

Psychiatric comorbidities are common among older, post-menopausal women. The Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP) Service of Modena General Hospital has set up a regular collaboration with the Cardiology Clinic, within the Woman Wellness Project (WWP), whose aim is detection and prevention of post-menopausal correlated diseases.

The aim of the study is to understand the management of psychic distress and mental disorders in post-menopausal women.

Data on 383 WWP outpatients, from January 2010 to September 2011, were retrospectively analyzed.

12.5% of the WWP patients (48/383) were referred to the CLP Service, but only 77% of them (37/48) attended the examination. Positive psychiatric history was detected in 62.2% of the patients, and 48% of these were already on psychopharmacological therapy. Main psychiatric diagnoses were depression (37.8%), anxious-depressive syndrome (18.9%), anxiety (16.2%), dysthymia (8.1%) and eating disorders (5.4%). The majority of patients (89%) had two or more medical comorbidities: dyslipidemia (62.1%), hypertension (29.7%) and thyroid diseases (21.6%). 83.8% of the patients were advised for psychopharmacological therapy, together with referral for psychological support in 22.7% of cases. Back-referral to Mental Health Care (21% to the Community Mental Health Centre, 30% to the Clinical Psychological Care Service and 5.4% to the Day Hospital for Eating Disorders) was suggested in 56.4% of cases.

Data from our experience support evidence from literature. Collaboration with a CLP Service improves detection of psychic distress and access to Mental Health Care for menopausal women. Considering the high frequency of medical comorbidities, psychiatric treatment needs an integrated approach.