Claude Vanier

Patterns of co-morbidity in male suicide completers

BACKGROUND Psychiatric co-morbidity is thought to be an important problem in suicide, but it has been little investigated. This study aims to investigate patterns of co-morbidity in a group of male suicide completers. METHOD One hundred and fifteen male suicide completers from the Greater Montreal Area and 82 matched community controls were assessed using proxy-based diagnostic interviews. Patterns of co-morbidity were investigated using latent class analysis. RESULTS Three subgroups of male suicide completers were identified (L2 = 171.62, df = 2012, P < 0.05). they differed significantly in the amount of co-morbidity (Kruskal-Wallis chi2 = 71.227, df = 2. P < 0.000) and exhibited different diagnostic profiles. Co-morbidity was particularly found in subjects with disorders characterized by impulsive and impulsive-aggressive traits, whereas subjects without those traits had levels of co-morbidity which were not significantly different from those of controls (chi2 = 8.17, df = 4, P = 0.086). CONCLUSIONS Suicide completers can be divided into at least three subgroups according to co-morbidity: a low co-morbidity group, a substance-dependent group and a group exhibiting childhood onset of psychopathology.

Suicide and serotonin: study of variation at seven serotonin receptor genes in suicide completers.

Suicide is an important public health problem, accounting for a significant proportion of total mortality among young people, particularly males. There is growing and consistent evidence suggesting that genetic factors play an important role in the predisposition to suicide. Based on several lines of evidence supporting a reduced serotonergic neurotransmission in subjects who committed suicide, we investigated variation at genes that code for serotonin receptor 1B (5‐HTR1B), 1Dα (5‐HTR1Dα), 1E (5‐HTR1E), 1F (5‐HTR1F), 2C (5‐HTR2C), 5A (5‐HTR5A), and 6 (5‐HTR6) in a total sample of 106 suicide completers and 120 normal controls. No differences were observed in allelic or genotypic distributions between groups for any of the loci investigated. Moreover, further analysis according to suicide method or psychopathology also failed to reveal differences between groups. Our results do not support a substantial role of these serotonergic receptors in suicide completion.

Wolfram Syndrome and Suicide: Evidence for a Role of WFS1 in Suicidal and Impulsive Behavior

There is evidence suggesting that subjects affected with the Wolfram syndrome (WFS) and normal carriers present an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and suicidal behavior. We investigated a possible role of the gene involved in WFS (WFS1) in the neurobiology of suicide and the potential modulatory effect on traits associated to suicidal behavior. Genetic variation at WFS1 (H611R, R456H, and I333V) was investigated in 111 suicide victims and 129 normal controls. Possible effects on psychopathology and behavioral traits were investigated in a subsample of suicide cases (N = 31) for whom phenotyping was carried out by means of structured psychiatric interviews and questionnaires adapted for psychological autopsies. We found a significantly higher frequency of the 611R/611R genotype in suicide completers as compared to controls (χ2 = 19.21, df=2, P = 0.001). Suicide completers with this genotype had higher scores on measures of impulsivity (t = −3.15, df = 15.3, P = 0.006); novelty seeking (NS) (t = −3.35, df = 13.8, P = 0.005); and conversely, lower scores of persistence (t = 2.4, df = 16.6, P = 0.028). Scores of impulsivity and NS remained higher in subjects with the associated genotype after adjusting for age, gender, and psychopathology. These results suggest a role for WFS1 in the pathophysiology of impulsive suicide, and are consistent with previous clinical reports suggesting an increased risk of suicidal behavior in WFS homozygotes and heterozygotes. However, these findings are preliminary and should be confirmed in independent samples.

Alternatives to acute hospital psychiatric care in east-end Montreal

Objective: As pres sure mounts to re duce the number of costly acute care beds, gov ernments and the lit era ture pro pose top- down ra tios. Is this rea son able and fair to the re spon s ible medi cal of fi cers who, as the key care pro vid ers, will need to ad mit pa tients and de velo p dis charge plans in a reduced- beds en vi ron ment? Method: Treat ing phy si cians of all acute care in pa tients on a given day (n = 212) and all new acute care ad mis sions over a 2- week pe riod (n = 125) com pleted an adapted ver sion of the Not ting ham Acute Beds Use Sur vey (NABUS) Ques tion naire. Results: On a given day, only 62 of 212 in pa tients were un suited for any al ter na tive to acute care hos pi tali za tion. A floor ra tio of 18 acute care beds per 100 000 in habi tants seems ade quate for the catch ment area in ques tion, pro vided that al ter na tives to hos pi tali z ation are fully and ef fi ciently avail able. Al ter na tives es sen tially in volve an ar ray of the follow ing: su per vised resi den tial set tings, day hos pi tals, and in ten sive home care (2 to 6 hours weekly). The ra tio of in ten sive home care work ers re quired would be 25 per 100 000 in habi tants.