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Biomedical subjects

D Wasserman

Publications and source records attributed to D Wasserman.

114 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Management of suicide attempts in Italy and Sweden. A comparison of services offered to consecutive samples of suicide attempters.

The aim of the study was to compare the management of suicide attempts by patients in Sweden and Italy with a view to providing a perspective on differences in treatment. Two consecutive samples of suicide attempters from Huddinge (n=97) and Padua (n=100) were studied in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, previous care, referral, medical and psychiatric care, hospitalization, aftercare, and short-term compliance. In Italian somatic management of acute suicidal crises, there are more physicians specializing in anesthesia or internal medicine working in ambulances and emergency wards, and there is a heavier emphasis on somatic care. Swedish management procedures seem to entail more medical examinations and biohumoral tests. Moreover, the procedures at the Swedish hospital give priority to early psychiatric intervention, and admission to psychiatric inpatient care is more frequent. However, it is not normal practice in emergency psychiatric care at either of the centers for specialists to serve in the immediate liaison consultation. There are differences in assessment and treatment between the two countries that may provide a perspective on their procedures, implying that current procedures for managing patients belonging to groups identified as "high-risk" in terms of suicide may be modified.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Thyroid function of burned patients: effect of iodine therapy].

Thyroid function was studied in 3 groups of adults (group I = 13 burned patients treated with non iodinated antiseptic, group II = 15 burned patients treated with polyvidone iodine, group III = 50 control subjects) in order to examine: the thyroid hormone status in burned patients, the possible incidence of plasma iodine overload on these endocrine parameters. Burned skin area and thyroid function were measured before treatment, then weekly for 3 weeks. Before treatment a decrease in plasma T4 and T3 with an increase in reverse T3 (rT3) and a decrease in plasma thyroxin binding globulin (TBG) were observed in burned patients. Free T4 index (T4/TBG) was normal, but T3 resin uptake (T3RU) was elevated. During treatment, plasma iodine increase sharply from 6.4 +/- 0.4 to 20.7 +/- 4.7 micrograms/100 ml (p less than 0.02) in group II. Endocrine parameters (not different between group I and II) progressively returned to normal, except for T3RU which remained elevated until the third week. rT3, T4 and T3RU correlated (p less than 0.001) with burned skin area. To conclude, the reversible particularities of thyroid function in burned patients are positively correlated with burned area. The thyroid function does not seen to be modified by plasma iodine overload.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Elevated suicide risk among patients with multiple sclerosis in Sweden.

Results from previous studies of suicide risk among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are inconsistent. This may be explained partly by differences in methodology and study populations. The purpose of our study was to investigate suicide risk among hospital patients with MS in Sweden. During the period 1969-1996, 12,834 cases were recorded in the Swedish Hospital Inpatient Register, with 77,377 hospital admissions, in which MS was a primary or secondary diagnosis at discharge. The mean follow-up time for the whole cohort was 9.9 (SD 7.3) years. When the data for these MS patients were linked to the Swedish Causes of Death Register for the same period, 5,052 (39.4%) were found to have died. Among the 5,052 deaths, suicide was an underlying cause of death in 90 cases (1.8%). The mean period between the initial admission date with an MS diagnosis at discharge and the date of death for the 90 MS suicide cases was 5.8 (SD 5.1) years. This was significantly shorter (p = 0.002) than the mean of 7.9 (SD 6.4) years for MS cases who died due to other causes. Suicide risk, calculated as the standardized mortality ratio (SMR), was significantly elevated (SMR = 2.3) among both male and female MS cases compared with the general population. Suicide risk was particularly high in the first year after initial admission with an MS diagnosis, and among younger male MS cases. The mean age at the time of suicide was 44.5 (SD 12.4) years, and 58% of the suicides were committed within 5 years after the first admission with an MS diagnosis. The crude suicide rate among MS patients during the study period was 71 per 100,000 person-years. The rate was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in males (114) than in females (47), with an odds ratio of 2.4 (95% CI: 1.6-3.8). These findings have implications for suicide preventive measures in neurological practice.

Adult↗