Suicide is a complex event for which psychodynamic, social, cultural, and biochemical factors have been studied. 1-3 In spite of these multiple factors, courts are more and more willing to impose civil liability on a defendant for the suicide of another. Psychiatrists are naturally most concerned with liability for failing to prevent suicide as it arises in the context of a malpractice suit. Wh...

BACKGROUND Little is known about train suicide and factors influencing its prevalence. This study tests the hypotheses that railway density, railway transportation volume, familiarity with railway transportation and population density contribute to train suicide. It also tests the relationship between train suicide and general population suicide and examines the prevalence and the characteristi...

In the past decade, more than 800 United States hospitals closed their doors forever. Many were psychiatric hospitals. Mental health professionals should be especially aware of the pain that hospital closure may cause for patients, staff, families, and communities and how the adverse effects of their varied grief reactions may last for years. Responsible clinical and administrative leaders can ...

The Frontline Reports column features short descriptions of novel approaches to mental health problems or creative applications of established concepts in different settings. Material submitted for the column should be 350 to 750 words long, with a maximum of three authors (one is preferred) and no references, tables, or figures. Send material to Francine Cournos, M.D., at the New York State Ps...

BACKGROUND There is scant knowledge of the involvement of developing country pharmacists in mental healthcare. The objectives of this study were: to examine the existing role of Ghanaian community and hospital pharmacists in the management of mental illness, and to determine the barriers that hinder pharmacists' involvement in mental healthcare in Ghana. METHOD A respondent self-completion qu...

This study examined the general and system-related predictors of outpatient satisfaction with tertiary health care institutions in Korea. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed. The subjects were 1,194 outpatients recruited from 29 outpatient clinics of a university medical center in Korea. Measurements included 5 outpatient service domains (i.e., doctor service, nurse service,...

In 2010 the NHS chief, David Nicholson, proposed a revolution in hospital inpatient care for older (not younger) people, akin to the closure of long stay psychiatric hospitals. But hospital admissions of older people continue to rise, and delays in discharge have worsened alongside fewer beds. One recurring policy idea that defies evidence and experience is that most “high need, high cost” olde...

Background With the deinstitutionalization of the last 30 years, psychiatric patients who where formerly housed and treated in large-scale mental hospitals in the country-side, were transferred to the cities and encouraged to rehabilitate and reintegrate in society, with the help of ambulatory psychiatric care and small-scale community admission units. In the same era, the number of compulsory ...

The use of psychiatry for political purposes has been a major subject of debate within the world psychiatric community during the second half of the 20th century. The issue became prominent in the 1970s and 1980s due to the systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, where approximately one-third of the political prisoners were locked up in psychiatric hospitals. The issue cau...