Many combat veterans exhibit suicidal ideation and behaviour, but the relationships among experiences occurring during combat deployment and suicidality are still not fully understood. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that harassment during a combat deployment is associated with post-deployment suicidality and testosterone function.

Male combat veterans who made post-deployment suicide attempts and demographically matched veterans without a history of suicide attempts were enrolled in the study. Demographic and clinical parameters of study participants were assessed and recorded. Study participants were interviewed by a trained clinician using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI) – Relationships within unit scale, the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI), and the Brown–Goodwin Aggression Scale. Free testosterone levels were assessed in morning blood samples.

DRRI harassment scores were higher and free testosterone levels were lower among suicide attempters in comparison with non-attempters. In the whole sample, DRRI harassment scores positively correlated with SSI scores and negatively correlated with free testosterone levels. Free testosterone levels negatively correlated with SSI scores. Aggression scale scores positively correlated with DRRI harassment scores among non-attempters but not among attempters.

Our observations that harassment scores are associated with suicidality and testosterone levels, and suicidality is associated with testosterone levels may indicate that there is a link between deployment harassment, testosterone function and suicidality.

Trait impulsivity is thought to play a key role in predicting behaviors on the externalizing spectrum, such as drug and alcohol use and aggression. Research suggests that impulsivity may not be a unitary construct, but rather multidimensional in nature with dimensions varying across self-report assessments and laboratory behavioral tasks. Few studies with large samples have included a range of impulsivity-related measures and assessed several externalizing behaviors to clarify the predictive validity of these assessments on important life outcomes.

Community adults (N = 1295) between the ages of 30 and 54 completed a multidimensional assessment of impulsivity-related traits (including 54 self-report scales of personality traits implicated in impulsive behaviors, and four behavioral tasks purporting to assess a construct similar to impulsivity) and reported on five externalizing behavioral outcomes (i.e. drug, alcohol, and cigarette use, and physical and verbal aggression). We ran an exploratory factor analysis on the trait scales, and then a structural equation model predicting the externalizing behaviors from the three higher-order personality factors (i.e. Disinhibition v. Constraint/Conscientiousness, Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality, and Extraversion/Positive Emotionality) and the four behavioral tasks.

Relations between the self-report factors and behavioral tasks were small or nonexistent. Associations between the self-report factors and the externalizing outcomes were generally medium to large, but relationships between the behavioral tasks and externalizing outcomes were either nonexistent or small.

These results partially replicate and extend recent meta-analytic findings reported by Sharma et al. (2014) to further clarify the predictive validity of impulsivity-related trait scales and laboratory behavioral tasks on externalizing behaviors.

Personality traits have been hypothesized to involve specific neurotransmitter systems. In order to test this model, the relationship between the responses to serotonergic and noradrenergic probes, central cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measures of monoamine neurotransmitters and the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) were evaluated in a cohort of personality disorder subjects.

A total of 142 patients meeting at least one personality disorder (meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition–Revised criteria) participated in these studies. The prolactin response to fenfluramine (a measure of serotonin function) was obtained for 110 subjects; growth hormone response to clonidine (a measure of noradrenergic function) was obtained for 77 subjects, while homovanillic acid (HVA) at baseline, an index of dopaminergic function, was available for 103 subjects. Measures of central neurotransmitter function (dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic: HVA, 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid, and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, respectively) were available for 36 subjects. Separate regression analyses utilizing each of the hypothesized associations, where the TPQ total scores were used as the dependent measures and the biologic indices were the independent measures were conducted. Exploratory correlational analyses between these biologic measures and the four dimensions of the TPQ (and its subscales) were also conducted. (Correlations are reported if they would remain significant at P<.01 level after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons across the six neuroendocrine measures).

In the regression analyses, there was a trend association between CSF and plasma HVA in predicting novelty-seeking (P<.07). No other significant associations were found in the other three measures. Regarding the individual correlational analyses, the persistence scale of the TPQ was significantly positively correlated with the growth hormone response to clonidine (r=.30, P<.008). The sentimentality subscale (reward dependence) was positively correlated with CSF 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid (r=0.45, P<.001), while the attachment subscale (also reward dependence) was correlated with CSF 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (r=0.49, P<.002).

Limited support was provided for a relationship between monoamines, particularly dopamine and novelty-seeking as well as norepinephrine and reward dependence but other hypothesized relationships were not supported by these measures.

Impulsive aggression in adulthood is associated with disturbances in serotonergic function. In contrast, research examining this association in childhood has yielded inconsistent results.

The current study examined the prospective relationship between serotonergic function measured in childhood and the later emergence of antisocial personality disorder.

Hormonal response to fenfluramine, an index of serotonergic function, was assessed in 58 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder between 1990 and 1997 when they were aged 7–11 years. Approximately 9 years later these individuals were evaluated for antisocial personality disorder.

Lower serotonergic responsivity assessed in childhood predicted the development of antisocial personality disorder (t (56)=2.25, P=0.028).

These results provide a critical link between the child and adult literature on the covariation of impulsive aggression and serotonergic function and suggest a potential explanation for inconsistencies in the childhood literature.

Family interventions for schizophrenia have proved to be highly effective in preventing relapse, but it is not clear how they work or how they should be structured.

To examine the effects of a behavioural family intervention and a family support programme on communication, problem solving and outcome in order to determine the impact of structured communication training.

Patients and family members participating in the Treatment Strategies in Schizophrenia study were videotaped engaging in 10-minute problem-solving conversations at baseline and after the conclusion of the family intervention. Tapes were subsequently evaluated for changes in communication patterns.

The intensive behavioural intervention did not produce differential improvement in communication, and change in communication was unrelated to patient outcomes.

The data suggest that intensive behavioural family interventions may not be cost efficient, and that change in family communication patterns may only be important for a subset of families.