Everyone has nightmares at some point, but new research suggests that in some cases nightmares stand alone as a suicide risk factor.

Study findings, presented at the SLEEP 2009 annual meeting, indicate that severe nightmares are independently associated with elevated suicidal symptoms. This is true even after accounting for depression, but symptoms of insomnia don’t have the same significance.
The principal investigator in the study was Rebecca Bernert, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Florida State University. Bernert believes that the study findings emphasize the need for a more thorough assessment of sleep, which may lead to more opportunities for intervention.
For …read more

Depending on how well you keep up with sports news, you may or may not have heard about former England football legend Paul Gascoigne checking himself into a Roehampton rehabilitation clinic after a series of suicide threats and attempts. According to the UK’s Telegraph, Gascoigne “has struggled for years with alcoholism and depression and was detained under the Mental Health Act in February.”
I’m always just a tad bit hesitant to discuss celebrities’ mental health news in the media. On one hand, I feel these public announcements (the news stories that are just that – news stories, and not actual accounts …read more

It’s all over the news, so by now you’ve all probably heard about the notorious “D.C. madam,” Deborah Jeane Palfrey, committing suicide. I first learned of it when I opened my Yahoo! email account last night and was greeted with this Yahoo! News article: Police: ‘D.C. madam’ kills herself in Fla. coastal town.
There’s something about the way that article title is phrased that makes me grimace. She killed herself. The D.C. madam killed herself. This daughter, this friend, this human being killed herself. It’s a very raw way of saying it, but, it’s also very true.
I guess I wouldn’t …read more