Tag Archives: Bipolar disorder

Straight, No Chaser: Suicide Data 2016 – Understand the Threat

November 28, 2016Public Health, Mental HealthGia Allemand, Suicide prevention, Suicide, Suicidal ideation, Straight No Chaser, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Sterling Medical Advice, Religion, Molecular Psychiatry, mental-health, Major depressive disorder, List of causes of death by rate, health, Disorders, Death, Bipolar disorder, Behind the Curtain, 844-SMA-TALKJeffrey Sterling, MD

There are amazing, shocking and saddening facts about suicide. It is equally amazing that we aren’t discussing this as an epidemic. After a period of nearly consistent decline in suicide rates in the United States from 1986 through 1999, suicide rates have increased almost steadily from 1999 through 2014.
Consider the following information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Vital Statistics System.

There were an average of 105 suicides a day in the U.S. (over 38,000 for 2010).
An estimated 8.3 million adults reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15-24, the second among those aged 25-34, the fourth among those aged 35-54, and the eighth among persons aged 55-64.
From 1999 through 2014, the age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased 24%, from 10.5 to 13.0 per 100,000 population, with the pace of increase greater after 2006.
Suicide rates increased from 1999 through 2014 for both males and females and for all ages 10–74.
The percent increase in suicide rates for females was greatest for those aged 10–14, and for males, those aged 45–64.

For those committing suicide:

33.3% tested positive for alcohol.
23% tested positive for antidepressants.
20.8% tested positive for opiates (such as heroin and prescription pain killers).
There is one suicide for every 25 attempts.

There are some topics that aren’t amenable to Blogs. Depression and suicide are among them. They can’t be done justice. What I can try to do is break components of the conversation into bite size pieces and give you information to work with. I’ll do this in three parts. Above, I’ve shown you the magnitude of suicide. In the next post, I will help you understand what clinical depression looks like, then finally, I’ll review some Quick Tips to help you prevent falling into the deepest levels of depression and to help you know when immediate attention is required. Just remember: this isn’t the type of depression that involves having a bad day. I’m talking about when your downward mood interferes with your activities of daily living. I’m describing depression that introduces suicide and homicide as an option. If you don’t read these for yourself, read them for knowledge. Someone you know may be affected.
Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: Suicide and Suicide Risks in College Students

August 31, 2016Mental Health, General Health and Wellness844-SMA-TALK, Sterling Medical Advice, Religion, Molecular Psychiatry, mental-health, Major depressive disorder, List of causes of death by rate, health, Gia Allemand, Disorders, Death, Bipolar disorder, Behind the Curtain, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Suicide prevention, Suicide, Suicidal ideation, Straight No ChaserJeffrey Sterling, MD

I just had the privilege of spending time at my alma mater addressing issues on behalf of students and mental health services. Among many other things discussed, I was shocked by the extent to which college suicides have become present on college campuses. I wonder when things changed. Isn’t college supposed to be the “best four years of your life?” It really doesn’t take much though to appreciate how this becomes the case.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college-age students in the United States and the third leading cause among those aged 15-24. There are approximately 1,100 deaths by suicide occurring in this age group each year. A recent study from Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland went in-depth in surveying and analyzing why students may have thoughts on suicide. Here is a summary of some of the study’s findings:

12% of those studied admitted that they had thought of committing suicide.
Of this group of 12%, approximately 25% of them said they had those thoughts repeatedly.
Depression and lack of social support appeared to be major factors contributing to thoughts of suicide.

If you actually think about it, college brings together a lot of risks for suicide.

Late adolescence and early adulthood represents the period of highest risk of developing a major psychiatric disorder.
The academic environment can be a stress-producing inferno for some, who may find themselves overwhelmed and feeling lost and as if they have nowhere to turn.
For many, the college experience represents the first time many are away from home and/or completely detached from the family and friends they’ve had their entire lives. Unless and until a sufficient new social network is established, levels of isolation can be overwhelming.
Even among those with social networks, the academic failure and any social rejection that may occur could be perceived by students as having life-long consequences, so much so that hopelessness and thoughts of suicide could set into a young adult’s mind.

Practically, how might you consider the risk in any one individual? The presence of any of these risk factors should prompt implementation of a support system to counter feelings of suicide.

It shouldn’t be difficult to appreciate how the lack of social support is one of the most powerful predictors of persistent suicidal thoughts. Someone who expresses or has feelings of being unappreciated, unloved and uninvolved with family and friends should be considered at risk – even in the absence of any other risk factors.
A history of clinically diagnosed depression or other psychiatric diagnoses
The exposure to domestic violence (either witnessing or having been abused) in childhood
Having a mother with a history of clinical depression

There are many Straight, No Chaser posts that address suicide prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Feel free to use the search box on the right for additional information.If you are a college student or a family member of a college student, you would do well to review your college’s support system and learn about services and support available for those in need of mental/behavioral health services. College should represent the beginning of one’s adult life, not the place where it ends.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: Suicide Data – Understand the Threat

November 30, 2015Public Health, Mental HealthSuicide prevention, Suicide, Suicidal ideation, Straight No Chaser, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Sterling Medical Advice, Religion, Molecular Psychiatry, mental-health, Major depressive disorder, List of causes of death by rate, health, Gia Allemand, Disorders, Death, Bipolar disorder, Behind the Curtain, 844-SMA-TALKJeffrey Sterling, MD

There are amazing, shocking and saddening facts about suicide. It is equally amazing that we aren’t discussing this as an epidemic. Consider the following information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
There were an average of 105 suicides a day in the U.S. (over 38,000 for 2010).
An estimated 8.3 million adults reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15-24, the second among those aged 25-34, the fourth among those aged 35-54, and the eighth among persons aged 55-64.
For those committing suicide:

33.3% tested positive for alcohol.
23% tested positive for antidepressants.
20.8% tested positive for opiates (such as heroin and prescription pain killers).
There is one suicide for every 25 attempts.

There are some topics that aren’t amenable to Blogs. Depression and suicide are among them. They can’t be done justice. What I can try to do is break components of the conversation into bite size pieces and give you information to work with. I’ll do this in three parts. Above, I’ve shown you the magnitude of suicide. In the next post, I will help you understand what clinical depression looks like, then finally, I’ll review some Quick Tips to help you prevent falling into the deepest levels of depression and to help you know when immediate attention is required. Just remember: this isn’t the type of depression that involves having a bad day. I’m talking about when your downward mood interferes with your activities of daily living. I’m describing depression that introduces suicide and homicide as an option. If you don’t read these for yourself, read them for knowledge. Someone you know may be affected.
I welcome any questions, comments or thoughts.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.

Straight, No Chaser: Suicide and Suicide Risks in College Students

July 28, 2015General Health and WellnessBipolar disorder, Behind the Curtain, 844-SMA-TALK, Death, Suicidal ideation, Suicide prevention, Suicide, Straight No Chaser, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Sterling Medical Advice, Religion, Molecular Psychiatry, mental-health, Major depressive disorder, List of causes of death by rate, health, Gia Allemand, DisordersJeffrey Sterling, MD

12% of those studied admitted that they had thought of committing suicide.
Of this group of 12%, approximately 25% of them said they had those thoughts repeatedly.
Depression and lack of social support appeared to be major factors contributing to thoughts of suicide.

If you actually think about it, college brings together a lot of risks for suicide.

Late adolescence and early adulthood represents the period of highest risk of developing a major psychiatric disorder.
The academic environment can be a stress-producing inferno for some, who may find themselves overwhelmed and feeling lost and as if they have nowhere to turn.
For many, the college experience represents the first time many are away from home and/or completely detached from the family and friends they’ve had their entire lives. Unless and until a sufficient new social network is established, levels of isolation can be overwhelming.
Even among those with social networks, the academic failure and any social rejection that may occur could be perceived by students as having life-long consequences, so much so that hopelessness and thoughts of suicide could set into a young adult’s mind.

Practically, how might you consider the risk in any one individual? The presence of any of these risk factors should prompt implementation of a support system to counter feelings of suicide.

It shouldn’t be difficult to appreciate how the lack of social support is one of the most powerful predictors of persistent suicidal thoughts. Someone who expresses or has feelings of being unappreciated, unloved and uninvolved with family and friends should be considered at risk – even in the absence of any other risk factors.
A history of clinically diagnosed depression or other psychiatric diagnoses
The exposure to domestic violence (either witnessing or having been abused) in childhood
Having a mother with a history of clinical depression

There are many Straight, No Chaser posts that address suicide prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Feel free to use the search box on the right for additional information.If you are a college student or a family member of a college student, you would do well to review your college’s support system and learn about services and support available for those in need of mental/behavioral health services. College should represent the beginning of one’s adult life, not the place where it ends.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.

Straight, No Chaser: The Tortured Mind of a Genius

August 21, 2014General Health and WellnessStraight No Chaser, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Sterling Medical Advice, Bipolar disorder, 844-SMA-TALKJeffrey Sterling, MD

Thinking back to the suicide of Robin Williams brings to mind a saying I’ve had for years: “Genius lives on the other side of the fence from insanity.” This has been demonstrated time and again in some of history’s most celebrated geniuses, including renowned artists Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, literary giants Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Leo Tolstoy, Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy and Sylvia Plath, musicians such as Mozart and Beethoven, scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton and any number of modern-day comedic geniuses.

The idea of the tortured genius is not new; in fact the concept is, well, tortured. This concept has been viewed and researched from many different angles, and the following conclusions are both proven by research and generally accepted within the population at large.

Out of great pain and struggle comes creativity.
The pressures of success can be too much for one to handle and can drive one into depression and toward suicide.

The fundamental questions one might consider when looking at your eccentric, friendly neighborhood genius are as follows:

Are genius and insanity both products of the same fountain of creativity coming from the brain?
Is creativity a product of mental illness?
Is mental illness a product of creativity compared against societal norms?
Is genius just a form of insanity?

Be reminded that there are many different forms of mental illness, featuring wildly different clinical signs. Regarding creativity, it is most strongly linked to mood disorders, most notably bipolar disorder (previously known as manic-depressive disorder), in which individuals display dramatic mood swings between extreme happiness (aka as “mania”) and severe depression.
Medical research on this issue has uncovered some interesting facts:

The same patterns of brain activity occur both when normal individuals display creativity and when bipolar individual emerge from depression and head toward mania.
Both geniuses and psychotic individuals have abilities that others don’t when it comes to processing stimuli into brain patterns and then converting these patterns into conscious thought. Psychotic individuals are less able to “filter” stimuli. Instead, they are better able to entertain loose association that other individuals might not make and then deliver these associations to the brain as ideas. In other words, a genius’ beautifully and brilliantly constructed picture or sentence could be interpreted as a normal person’s “nonsense.” Sounds like a lot of conversations that occur about art and music such as jazz, doesn’t it?
Geniuses and psychotic individuals are more able to entertain contradictory ideas at the same time than those who are not. This leads to more complex forms of thought and expression. Again, the notion of “nonsense” vs. “expression of genius” comes into play here.

Perhaps the important consideration here is found in the notion of functionality. A prominent part of the definition of various psychoses is the inability to function. Perhaps the difference between creative, eccentric and psychotic individuals is to be found in the relative ability to channel that creativity toward productive and societally-accepted endeavors. Of course the concern with the tortured genius is in spite of all evidence to the contrary, including fame, fortune and love, some of these individuals still spiral into depression and other mental illnesses. In some instances, this ends tragically with the loss of life.

Be mindful that those individuals who display abnormality of thought – even if what you see is creativity or extreme intelligence – have abnormality of thought, or at least unconventional means of thinking. Sometimes this results in horrible outcomes. Take the time to care and make sure your genius isn’t a tortured one.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what 844-SMA-TALK and http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2014 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress.

Straight, No Chaser: Suicide Data – Understand the Threat

August 20, 2013Public Health, Mental HealthSuicidal ideation, Suicide prevention, Suicide, Religion, Molecular Psychiatry, mental-health, Major depressive disorder, List of causes of death by rate, health, Gia Allemand, Disorders, Death, Bipolar disorderJeffrey Sterling, MD

33.3% tested positive for alcohol.
23% tested positive for antidepressants.
20.8% tested positive for opiates (such as heroin and prescription pain killers).
There is one suicide for every 25 attempts.

Females are more likely than males to have had suicidal thoughts, but suicide among males is four times higher than among females (in other words, females think about it and try more often, but males complete the act more often.).
Among Native Americans aged 15-34, suicide is the second leading cause of death, fully 2.5 times higher than the national average.
There are some topics that aren’t amenable to Blogs. Depression and suicide are among them. They can’t be done justice. What I can try to do is break components of the conversation into bite size pieces and give you information to work with. I’ll do this in three parts. Above, I’ve shown you the magnitude of suicide. In the next post, I will help you understand what clinical depression looks like, then finally, I’ll review some Quick Tips to help you prevent falling into the deepest levels of depression and to help you know when immediate attention is required. Just remember: this isn’t the type of depression that involves having a bad day. I’m talking about when your downward mood interferes with your activities of daily living. I’m describing depression that introduces suicide and homicide as an option. If you don’t read these for yourself, read them for knowledge. Someone you know may be affected.
I welcome any questions, comments or thoughts.