Author: yes louise s larsen

Nikolaj Kjær Høier wins the second prize in the Danish Regions’ Prize Competition for Medical Students in Clinical Psychiatry

Nikolaj Høier from DRISP was awarded the 2nd Prize in the Danish Regions’ Prize Competition for Medical Students in Clinical Psychiatry at the Danish Psychiatric Society’s Annual Meeting on March 15th. The winning entry was titled ‘Associations of treatment with hypnotics with suicide and attempted suicide: a nationwide cohort study.’

The prize was presented by Prof. Martin Balslev Jørgensen, who stated on behalf of the judging committee that:

The prize entry represents an important registry study within a field that is often underestimated. The committee noted that the entry provides exciting results through appropriate statistical analyses with adjustments for confounders. Furthermore, the committee agreed that the discussion was of high quality.

The judging committee decided to award the 2nd Prize of 15,000 DKK.

WHO National Suicide prevention strategies

WHO National Suicide Prevention Plans
WHO has released a report on national suicide prevention plans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a status report on national suicide prevention plans. The report emphasizes that national plans are important for setting the topic of suicide prevention on the political agenda. A national strategy with an accompanying prevention plan is essential to implement suicide prevention. Without an overarching plan, efforts are at risk of failing and suicide rates remaining unchanged.

The report aims to be a resource tool to inspire governments and policy-makers to implement a national action plan in the field. Examples of national action plans from different WHO regions are presented.

Link to report: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/national-suicide-prevention-strategies-progress-examples-and-indicators

In 2021, WHO released guidelines on how to implement a suicide prevention plan. The guide, which called “Live Life”, provides concrete instructions on how to facilitate suicide prevention. It can be used to design national efforts, but the instructions also apply to smaller geographical or administrative units, such as local communities. The guidelines describes how to organize efforts and provides examples of concrete interventions, which previously have been shown to be effective.

Link to LIVE LIFE: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240026629

Prevention of suicide and suicide attempts in the Nordic countries: A situation analysis

Every suicide death is one too many. A goal of reducing the number of suicides by 25% in 2025 has been put forward by the Nordic Council Welfare Committee’s 2025 Ambition. This is in line with the United Nation’s World Goals for Sustainable Development of a 33% reduction of the suicide mortality rate in the world by 2030.

To gain an overview and to examine whether the suicide rates of the Nordic are decreasing, the Nordic Counsel of Ministers commissioned Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention (DRISP) to conduct a Situation Analysis. This situation analysis provides an overview as well as summarizes existing efforts and main challenges. It aims to provide information of relevance for policymakers, researchers, NGOs, and people who are interested in reducing the burden of suicide in the Nordic countries.

DRISP has prepared the report by in collaboration with a long list of highly established researchers and experts in the Nordic countries. The report has now been published by the Nordic Counsel of Ministers.

Some of the main findings are:

  • In 2022, a total of 3,574 individuals died by suicide in the Nordic countries.
  • The highest suicide rate was found in Greenland.
  • With respect to UN’s goal of a 33% reduction in the suicide mortality rate, there has only been achieved modest over recent years in Nordic countries.
  • Suicide statistics from Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aaland Islands are seemingly not being reported to the WHO Mortality Database.
  • Suicide attempts are seemingly not been monitored in almost all of the Nordic countries.
  • Almost all Nordic countries have a national plan for suicide prevention.
  • Follow-up routines for people who present with suicide attempts in somatic emergency departments are seemingly missing in most countries.

Link to the full report can be found here:

Report from the Nordic Counsel of Ministers

Rewatch the workshop: Artificial Intelligence and Camera Surveillance as Means for Suicide Prevention in Public Places

DRISP, DSB, Banedanmark, Livslinien and University of Copenhagen are inviting you to a workshop on:.

Date: Nov 11, 2022

Time: 9.00-15.00

Place: Teams (online)

01. Integration of CCTV and Machine Learning for Prevention of Suicide at Public Places in Australia by
Dr. Mark Larsen, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia

02. Implementation of Camera Surveillance for Suicide Prevention in the Stockholm Metro System by Johan Fredin-Knutzén, Nationellt centrum för suicidforskning och prevention, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Arne Grundberg, SL/Region Stockholm, Sweden

03. Investigating the Effectiveness of Surveillance Technologies to Prevent Suicides at ‘High-Risk’ Locations in the UK by Dr Lisa Marzano, Faculty of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, UK & Dr Jay-Marie Mackenzie, University of Westminster, UK

04. Prevention of railway suicide by camera surveillance in the Netherlands by Kristian Ruiter, manager ‘Camera surveillance’, ProRail

05. Safe lives – efficient AI surveillance to alert trains in real-time in Denmark by Martin Riishøj Mathiasen, DSB

06. ‘OPEN MICROPHONE’: What are some of the main challenges in this field? Send us your questions and we’ll have an open discussion, which all participants can join. Chaired by Annette Erlangsen

07. Identifying Behaviours of persons at risk of suicide from CCTV surveillance in Canada by Professor Brian L Mishara, Psychology Department, Director, Centre for Research and Intervention on Suicide, Ethical Issues and End of Life Practices (CRISE) Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

08. Intelligent video surveillance for automatic detection of suicide attempts (Recorded talk) in Canada by Professor Wassim Bouachir, Computer Sciences, TÉLUQ University, and Montreal, Canada and Centre for Research and Intervention on Suicide, Ethical Issues and End of Life Practices (CRISE) Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

09. PANEL DISCUSSION: FUTURE DIRECTIONS by Participants: – Nils la Cour, Safety Manager, Danish State Railways (chair) – Brian L Mishara, Psychology Department, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada. – Steffen Petersen, DSB Digital Labs, Denmark.

Rewatch the workshop: Prevention of railway suicide

DRISP, DSB, Banedanmark, Livslinien, and University of Copenhagen.

Recorded the Nov 2, 2020
Time: 10.00-14.45

Welcome by Prof. Merete Nordentoft and Nils la Cour (7 min)

Opening speech
by Danish Minister for Transport, Benny Engelbrecht (14 min)

Suicide by railway in Denmark by Christian Ørbæk Larsen, Banedanmark (3,5 min)

Prevention of suicide by railway: an overview by Annette Erlangsen PhD, DRISP (23 min)

How does railway suicides affect train drivers? Tommy Damstedt Jørgensen, Peer supporter, Danish Railways (15 min)

LiDAR technology for surveying train platforms by Mark Bouldin, Hitachi, United Kingdom (37 min)

Factors deterring and prompting the decision to attempt suicide on the railway networks by Lisa Marzano PhD, Department of Psychology, Middlesex University London, UK (40 min)

Suicide Prevention on the Dutch Railways: moving beyond physical and organisational barriers by Roald van der Valk, ProRail Safety and Security, The Netherlands (27 min)

Suicide in the transport system in Sweden by Anna-Lena Andersson PhD, Swedish Transport Administration. (23 min)

PANEL DISCUSSION with directors of the Danish Railways and political spokespersons (7 min)

Merete Nordentoft receives award from NOVO Nordic 2020

Professor Merete Nordentoft from DRISP and Copenhagen Research Center For Mental Health has received this year’s Award from Novo Nordic together with a professor at Aarhus University for their research on suicide and mortality in relation to schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

Twenty years ago, evidence-based knowledge on risks of suicide and o psychiatric comorbidity among people suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorders was rather limited. Professor Merete Nordentoft has together with Preben Bo Mortensen from Aarhus University helped change this. With their research on suicide and mortality among people with schizophrenia and other serious mental disorders, they have made significant contributions to the international understanding on prevention of suicide and severe mental disorders.

In recognition of this, the Novo Nordisk Fund this year chose to give the Novo Nordisk Prize 2020 to Merete Nordentoft and Preben Bo Mortensen.

Ascending Investigator for Trine Madsen

Trine Madsen from DRISP has recently received the ”Ascending Investigators Grant” from the Lundbeck Foundation to conduct the research project “Young People’s Risk of Suicide Attempt (YRSA).

The rate of suicide attempt in adolescents has been increasing for the last decades, especially in young girls. Suicide attempt is the best-established risk factor for subsequent death by suicide, therefore this increasing trend is alarming.

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Trine Madsen from DRISP has recently received the ”Ascending Investigators Grant” from the Lundbeck Foundation to conduct the research project “Young People’s Risk of Suicide Attempt (YRSA).

The rate of suicide attempt in adolescents has been increasing for the last decades, especially in young girls. Suicide attempt is the best-established risk factor for subsequent death by suicide, therefore this increasing trend is alarming.

Reportedly, only up to 9-25% of those adolescents who attempt suicide are seen at somatic hospitals, implying that up to 90% of all teenagers in a crisis situation with a suicide attempt may have not received professional help for their suicidal behavior. The YRSA project aims to document prevalences and early risk factors for suicide attempt in both those seen at somatic hospitals for suicide attempt and in those who self-reported suicide attempt but do not seek somatic treatment. Further, the aim is to examine barriers and facilitators of seeking help from mental health services after a suicide attempt. The YRSA project, which combines self-reported data from the Danish National Birth Cohort with register-based data, are unique for this purpose.

The Ascending Investigators grant is given to established and talented scientists at Danish research institutions to further develop their careers and to make significant research contributions. It is an honor to receive a such prestigious award.

Read more about the project: [Link]

Trine Madsen get Nordentoft award 2020

Trine Madsen receives the award for her important contributions within register-based research on mental illnesses, infections, traumatic brain trauma and deployments to war zones as risk factors for suicide. She has, among others, demonstrated that the time after discharge from a psychiatric hospital in Denmark is a high-risk period for suicide, which ought to be targeted by interventions.

Trine Madsen is an international expert in trajectory analyses and has studied the development of suicidal thoughts among patients with bipolar disorder, depression disorders and schizophrenia in USA and Holland. She has also helped set up a large intervention study aimed at preventing suicide after discharge from a psychiatric hospital.

The Nordentoft Award was set up by the Association for Education and Research on Suicide Prevention to mark Professor Merete Nordentoft’s great contributions within suicide prevention research in Denmark. The objective of the award is to promote suicide prevention and to make the efforts within this field visible to a broader audience.

As both research and preventive efforts are important and needed disciplines to secure reductions in the numbers of suicide, the Nordentoft Award is every second year given to a practitioner and in other years to a researcher.

DRISP-seminar: Psychosocial and digital suicide prevention

Date: February 14th, 2020
Time: 9.30-12.15
Stream of DRISP seminar:

https://region-hovedstaden-
ekstern.23video.com/secret/60534150/13f177355f751579fe3f8b9bbd2975c0
(introduktion begynder efter 8 minutter)

PROGRAM:

Welcome by Prof. Merete Nordentoft, Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention

Digital phenotyping and suicide prevention by Prof. Heleen Riper, Section of Clinical Psychology, Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Psychosocial interventions for suicide prevention by Prof. Ad Kerkhof, Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Digital interventions for youth with suicidal ideation or self-harm by Prof. Sarah Hetrick, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand

People with sleep disorders and rates of suicide

People with sleep disorders or poor sleep quality have an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. Sleep disorders may also be associated with suicide but the evidence regarding this has so far been limited to small studies.

The aim of the research project was to analyze the relationship between sleep disorders, treatment with sleeping pills (e.g. benzodiazepines and melatonin) and suicide using register-based data. In separate statistical analyses, it has, for instance, been investigated whether people with sleep disorders have higher rates of suicide when compared to people without sleep disorders.

Findings from the first study showed that males who had been diagnosed with a sleep disorder had a 1.5 times higher suicide rate versus males with no sleep disorder. A 2.2 times higher suicide rate was observed for females with sleep disorders when compared to the background population. In addition, the findings revealed that the majority of people with sleep disorders who died by suicide also had a mental disorder, which potentially could explain the increased suicide risk. Patients with narcolepsy were found to have a higher suicide rate when compared to the background population. This has not previously been documented.

You can find the scientific study here:

https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/45/5/zsac069/6550645?login=false

In separate study, it was examined whether melatonin, a treatment for sleep disorders, was associated with an increased rate of suicide attempts and suicide. People who had redeemed prescriptions for melatonin were subsequently found to have a higher rate of suicide attempts and suicide than people not in treatment with melatonin. About 90% of the people treated with melatonin who had a suicide attempts also had a psychaitric disorder. This supports the hypothesis that people who suffer from insomnia or sleep disorders often also experience psychological stress and this relationship may increase risk of suicidal behavior. This study was the first to assess the link between treatment with melatonin and suicide.

You can find the published study here:
https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.10118

The study was supported by a research scholarship from the Lundbeck Foundation.

Partner:

  • Adam Spira, PhD, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of PublicHealth, Baltimore, USA.
  • Prof Keith Hawton, Centre for Suicide Research, University of Oxford

Lithium is the best treatment for people with bipolar disorder in terms of a lower risk of suicide.

A study by Cecilie Fitzgerald and colleagues from DRISP in collaboration with international experts documents that lithium is the best treatment for people with bipolar disorder when it comes to preventing suicidal behavior. Although newer commercial drugs have been developed and marketed, lithium remains superior for this patient group. This is important evidence because people with bipolar disorder have an 18-fold higher risk of suicide when compared to other people in the general population.

The study was published in the renowned scientific journal, British Journal of Psychiatry. It  used complete and nationwide data on all people diagnosed with bipolar disorder in Denmark during 1995-2016 and investigated which type of treatment were most effective at preventing suicidal behavior and psychiatric readmission. The findings revealed that people who were in ongoing treatment with lithium had a 26% lower suicide rate when compared to periods of not being in treatment. People treated with lithium had a 33% lower risk of suicide when compared to people treated with valproate.

In total, 33,337 people with bipolar disorder were included in the analyses, and a 60% lower suicide rate was found among those treated with lithium compared to periods without treatment. In addition, the study found fewer psychiatric readmissions among people treated with lithium compared to people who were not in treatment.

The study can be found here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/abs/effectiveness-of-medical-treatment-for-bipolar-disorder-regarding-suicide-selfharm-and-psychiatric-hospital-admission-between-and-withinindividual-study-on-danish-national-data/FFDA12AAC21C6722D5B9F6EF94621349

DRISP: Cecilie Aalling, Merete Nordentoft, Annette Erlangsen

Partners:

  • Prof Keith Hawton, Centre for Suicide Research, University of Oxford
  • Michael Eriksen Benros, Psykiatrisk Center København

PhD defense in DRISP

On February 14, 2020, Charlotte Mühlmann successfully defended her PhD on “Internet-based self-help therapy for individuals with suicidal ideation.” Opponents were: prof. Sarah Hetrick, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand and prof. Heleen Riper, Section of Clinical Psychology, Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Well done, Charlotte!

Science: Suicide—turning the tide

As one of the few countries in the world, Denmark has secured a radical decline in the suicide rate over the last 40 years. Historically, the Danish suicide rate was among the highest in the world but the rate began declining in 1980 where 38 suicide deaths per 100,000 inhabitants were counted until 2007 where it had reached a level of 11 suicide deaths per 100,000; a reduction to one third of its originally level. The recipe for this success story is listed in SCIENCE.

In the same issue, a series of articles lay out recent and on-going achievements in suicide prevention.

Link to SCIENCE EDITORIAL:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/365/6455/725.full.pdf

WHO and DRISP – an analysis of the Eastern Mediterranean Region

DRISP has contributed to the international work of suicide prevention. As a consultant for WHO, Annette Erlangsen has conducted a situation analysis of suicide and attempted suicide in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO EMRO) from 2000 to 2020. WHO EMRO consists of the countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.

The analysis found that:

  1. In more than half of the studied countries, data on suicide was either insufficient or of poor quality, making it challenging to monitor the incidence of suicide.
  2. From 2000 to 2019, there was a 7.6% decrease in the suicide rate in the region, primarily among women.
  3. In more than half of the countries, suicide is still considered a criminal act. This is problematic as it can potentially imply that individuals at risk of suicide might not seek help.

The situational analysis can be found here:
https://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/mnh/documents/situation_analysis_emro.pdf

Erlangsen et al, 2023_ArchivesDownload