Cancer Can Lead to Death in Sometimes Unexpected Ways

People who have been diagnosed with cancer have a markedly increased risk of suicide and cardiovascular death during the period immediatley after being given the diagnosis, reported Swedish and Icelandic researchers April 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine. They had followed more than 6 million Swedes for a five-year period.

Only a small proportion of subjects died by suicide immediately after being diagnosed with cancer. However, the suicide risk during the first week following the diagnosis was 12 times higher than in people without cancer. Similarly, the risk of cardiovascular death was six times higher during the first week, and three times higher during the first month, after a cancer diagnosis.

More information about the mental health sequelae of cancer, as well as a psychiatrists account of his cancer battle, can be found in Psychiatric News .

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Lithium Boosts Clock Rhythms

For many years, lithium has been a mainstay treatment for bipolar disorder. But exactly how it benefits bipolar patients has not been clear. Now scientists have found, in cell/tissue studies, that lithium increases the amplitude, or strength, of body-clock rhythms. "Our findings...offer a novel explanation as to how lithium may be able to stablize mood swings in bipolar patients," the researchers wrote in a press release accompanying the publication of their paper March 12 in PLoS One.

Furthermore, lithium's biological and psychological benefits may not be limited to people with bipolar disorder. Two other studies have found that lithium in drinking water may be able to provide some protection against suicide. For more information about these studies, see Psychiatric News. For an in-depth review of the latest knowledge about lithium and other treatments for bipolar disorder, see American Psychiatric Publishing's Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders.

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Depression Can Lead to an Accidental Medicine Overdose

There is a link between psychiatric illness and accidental medication overdose, a study in the January American Journal of Psychiatry suggests. Indeed, depressive disorders and anxiety disorders other than posttraumatic stress disorder were found to have a stronger association with the risk of death from a medication-related overdose than with the risk of death from an alcohol overdose or an illegal-drug overdose. Researchers are unsure why, however.

The study, which was conducted on all patients treated in Veterans Health Administration facilities from 1999 to 2000--over three million subjects--appears to be the first to look at the longitudinal relationship between psychiatric disorders and death from accidental medication overdose in an adult clinical population.

Click here for an abstract of the study.

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Hallucinogen May Have Power to Improve Depression

Despite the problems that come with use of hallucinogens, scientists are optimistic that that the hallucinogen psilocybin, found in some mushroom species, may be able to improve symptoms of depression. Researchers affiliated with Imperial College London studied 30 volunteers who were given psilocybin intravenously and then undewent magnetic resonance imaging. They reported in the January 24 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that "Activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is hyperactive in depression, was consistently lowered." One of the researchers, Professor David Nutt, has applied for permission to carry out a study using the hallucinogen in a small sample of depressed patients. In an upcoming issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, the same researchers will report that psilocybin "enhanced volunteers' recollections of positive personal memories, compared with those who took a placebo."

Psychiatric News recently reported on another study of psilocybin, this one by Johns Hopkins researchers, in which the substance was associated with positive changes in a personality trait. Read about that study here.

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Facebook Helps Suicidal Individuals

The social-media site Facebook is making it easier for people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts to get help, the Associated Press reported December 13. The program "enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook's 'chat' messaging system," said Fred Wolens, public-policy manager at Facebook.

Facebook is also finding an audience among psychiatrists who find it useful professionally. At least one is using it as a tool for a multicenter psychiatric study. But psychiatrists who use Facebook caution that there can be challenges—for example, what should you do when patients send you friend requests? For more information on the pros and cons of psychiatrists' use of social media, see Psychiatric News here .

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Youth Suicide Attempts Often Start Early in Life

Forty percent of youth who attempt suicide make their first attempt even before they reach high school, a study headed by James Mazza of the University of Washington and published in the November Journal of Adolescent Health has found. The researchers also found that suicide attempts during childhood and adolescence were linked to higher scores on measures of depression at the time of the attempts.

For an in-depth exploration of the link between depression and suicide in youngsters, see the American Psychiatric Publishing book The Many Faces of Depression in Children and Adolescents. It reviews not just what is known about the causes of depression and suicide in youth, but discusses state-of-the-art pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for youth with depression who are at greater suicide risk. 

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