Journal Digest

History of Self-Harm Predicts Suicidal Ideation in Veterans

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Self-harm is a strong predictor of suicidal ideation among veterans, reports a study appearing in Psychiatry Research.

The analysis included 151 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at the Central Texas VA Health Care System, including those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or alcohol use disorder (veterans with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were excluded from the study).

A total of 14 percent of the participating veterans reported a history of nonsuicidal self-harm (NSSI). These veterans were five times as likely to experience suicidal ideation compared with veterans without a history of NSSI. NSSI remained a strong influence over suicidal ideation even when other risk factors like PTSD were considered.

Study author Nathan Kimbrel, Ph.D., a psychologist at the Durham VA Medical Center, suggests NSSI should be an important factor when assessing suicide risk.

“If we can identify veterans engaging in NSSI early on, then hopefully we can begin to change their trajectory and put them on a more positive course,” Kimbrel said in a press release.

People With ASD Are Sensitive to Sensory ‘Noise’

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People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to show certain impairments in their perception. New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests these impairments may be related to a heightened sensitivity to sensory noise rather than deficiencies in how people with ASD integrate sensory cues.

The researchers presented a visual perception task (determining which direction you are moving) to 14 people with ASD, and independently varied the amount of visual noise in the test. They found that ASD participants exhibited unimpaired perception of self-motion in a noiseless environment, but that the introduction of noise hindered their perception compared with controls.

The ASD participants also performed just as well as controls when integrating visual stimuli and inertial stimuli (perceived via the inner ear), even in the presence of visual noise. In tests that used inertial movement paired with complete visual noise, the ASD participants performed better than controls initially, but controls adapted quicker in subsequent tests.

The results suggest that people with ASD may make less use of prior sensory knowledge, which could lead to increased reliance on incoming sensory stimuli and heightened noise sensitivity.

Short-Term Debt Associated With Increased Depressive Symptoms

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A study of over 8,000 working-age adults suggests that having short-term debt, such as credit cards or overdue monthly bills, increases depressive symptoms. In contrast, mid- or long-term debt, such as student loans or mortgages, was not found to be associated with depressive symptoms.

The link between short-term debt and depression was strongest among people who were not married, people aged 51 to 64 (on the cusp of retirement), and those with a high school education or less.

While money has been known to influence the risk and severity of depression, this new study highlights the importance of considering specific types and amounts of debt, rather than just overall debt.

“The findings could be used to help mental health practitioners better understand the impact of their clients’ borrowing habits on their depression,” lead author Lawrence Berger, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, said in a press release.

Berger noted that the study factored in the potential of reverse directionality, and the analysis indicated that the causal association runs from debt to depressive symptoms and not vice versa.

The study was published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Binge Eating More Common in Children With ADHD

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Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have a loss of control eating syndrome (LOC-ES)—a condition similar to binge eating, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins.

The Hopkins team, led by Shauna Reinblatt, M.D., an assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, recruited 79 Baltimore-area children aged 8 to 14 and assessed the presence of ADHD and/or loss of control eating syndrome (LOC-ES). The children also participated in neuropsychological exercises to measure their general degree of impulse control.

Reinblatt and her colleagues found that the odds of having LOC-ES were 12 times higher for children diagnosed with ADHD compared with those without the disorder. Furthermore, children who were overweight or obese and had LOC-ES had seven times the odds of also having ADHD, compared with overweight or obese children without LOC-ES.

When the researchers considered general impulsivity regardless of an ADHD diagnosis, they found that the odds of having LOC-ES increased as the scores on the impulsivity tests increased and performance on the impulsivity tests decreased.

The researchers noted that more work is needed to uncover the basis of these findings, which were reported in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. It may be that LOC-ES is a symptom of a more severe form of ADHD, or the two disorders may be distinct but share an underlying genetic or environmental risk factor.

Length of Survival With FTLD May Be Linked to Occupation Level

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Higher occupational attainment is associated with longer survival in people who develop frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State University. FTLD is believed to account for 20 to 50 percent of dementia cases in people under 65.

For the study, which was published in the journal Neurology, the researchers reviewed the medical and employment history of 83 people who had a confirmed diagnosis of FTLD or Alzheimer’s disease.

Among the 34 people with FTLD, those who had professions in the highest occupation level—as ranked by the U.S. Census—survived an average of 116 months following the first onset of symptoms, while people in the lower occupation group survived an average of 72 months—a difference of nearly four years.

This occupational discrepancy was not seen among people with Alzheimer’s disease, and level of education was not associated with survival for either condition.

These findings may be able to help provide more specific prognosis estimates for cases of early-onset dementia, which affects language and behavior more than memory, and guide the development of therapeutic strategies. ■