Mysore Study: A Study of Suicide Notes

BACKGROUND:

Suicide is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths. Recent data suggest South India as one of the regions with highest suicide rates in the world. In 2013, 134,799 people committed suicide in India according to the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau. Suicide note is one of the most important sources to understand suicide, which may be beneficial in suicide prevention. Studies on suicidal notes from this part of the world are sparse.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim was to study the themes in suicide notes that might be useful in prevention strategies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A descriptive study of all suicide notes of those individuals who committed suicide between 2010 and 2013 available with Police Department, Mysore district was obtained and analyzed.

RESULTS:

A total of 22 suicide note were available. A majority of suicide note was in age group of 16-40 years (86%) and most were men (59%). All suicide notes were handwritten, the majority (70%) in regional language Kannada. Length of notes varied from just few words to few pages. Contents of suicide notes included apology/shame/guilt (80%), love for those left behind (55%) and instruction regarding practical affairs (23%). Most have blamed none for the act (50%). 23% mentioned that they are committing suicide to prove their innocence. 32% mentioned a last wish.

CONCLUSION:

The majority of suicidal note contained "guilt" which is a strong indicator of possible depression in deceased. Creating awareness about suicide among public and ensuring access to professionals trained in suicide prevention is need of the hour in this part of the world.

Below:  Gender and marital status of those who left suicide note

Below:  Overall content in 22 suicide notes

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/gazM4W

By:  P. Namratha, M. Kishor, T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao, and Rajesh Raman

Department of Psychiatry, JSS Medical College and Hospital, JSS University, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Address for correspondence: Dr. M. Kishor, Department of Psychiatry, JSS Medical College and Hospital, JSS University, Mysore - 570 004, Karnataka, India. E-mail: moc.liamg@dmrohsikrd

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Identification with Stimuli Moderates Women's Affective and Testosterone Responses to Self-Chosen Erotica

Sexual thoughts are sufficient to increase testosterone (T) in women, yet erotic films are not. A key confound in past studies is autonomy in stimulus selection: women choose the content of their sexual thoughts but films have been selected by researchers. We hypothesized that self-chosen erotic films, compared to researcher-chosen erotic films, would (1) increase women's self-reported arousal, enjoyment, and identification with stimuli, and decrease negative affect; and (2) increase T. 

Participants (N = 116 women) were randomly assigned to a neutral documentary condition or one of three erotic film conditions: high choice (self-chosen erotica from participants' own sources), moderate choice (self-chosen erotica from films preselected by sexuality researchers), or no choice (researcher-chosen erotica). Participants provided saliva samples for T before and after viewing the film in the privacy of their homes. 

Compared to researcher-chosen erotica, self-chosen erotica increased self-reported arousal and enjoyment, but also unexpectedly disgust, guilt, and embarrassment. Self-chosen erotica only marginally increased identification with stimuli compared to researcher-chosen erotica. Overall, film condition did not affect T, but individual differences in identification moderated T responses: among women reporting lower levels of identification, the moderate choice condition decreased T compared to the no choice condition, but this difference was not observed among women with higher identification. 

These results highlight the importance of cognitive/emotional factors like identification for sexually modulated T. However, self-chosen erotica results in more ambivalent rather than unequivocally positive cognitive/emotional responses, perhaps because stigma associated with viewing erotica for women becomes more salient when choosing stimuli.

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By:  Goldey KL1, van Anders SM2.

• 1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
• 2Departments of Psychology and Women's Studies; Programs in Neuroscience and Reproductive Sciences; Science, Technology, and Society Program; Biosocial Methods Collaborative, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. smva@umich.edu.

 

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