Mental Health Indicators of Suicide in Cambodian Women

Armes, Stephanie; Somo, Charity M.; Khann, Sareth; Seponski, Desiree M.; Lahar, Cindy J.; Kao, Sovandara; Schunert, Tanja

doi:10.1177/1010539517751349

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Rates of mental health disorders in Cambodia are higher than in other low-to medium-income countries, with previous findings from the current study indicating elevated national rates of psychopathology, including anxiety (27.4%), depression (16.7%), and PTSD (7.6%) (Seponski et al, 2019). Cambodian women who are younger, single, and uneducated are at even greatest risk for mental illness (Saxena et al, 2007), and previous findings of this study indicated that Cambodian women experiencing depression and PTSD, as well as cultural symptoms or syndromes, are at heightened risk for attempting suicide (Armes et al, 2018). Socioeconomic status (SES) affects mental health among the Cambodian population, with individuals in financial debt experiencing significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Seponski et al, 2019).…”

Section: Cambodian Mental Healthsupporting

confidence: 84%

Knowledge of psychology in Cambodia: Exploring the relationships to demographics, psychopathology, and idioms of distress

Kelley¹,

Seponski²,

Khann

et al. 2022

Transcult Psychiatry

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Rates of mental health disorders in Cambodia are markedly higher than in other low- or middle-income countries. Despite these high rates, mental healthcare resources remain scarce and mental health stigma is pervasive, particularly for vulnerable populations of young women and individuals of low socioeconomic status. To address this gap, teaching Western mental health treatments and using a mental healthcare framework are recommended within the Cambodian context. However, Western frameworks do not address cultural syndromes or idioms of distress and operate from an individualistic perspective that does not address cultural values and beliefs. The present study employs a mental health literacy framework in an exploratory analysis of rates of psychological knowledge in a nationally representative sample of Cambodian adults (N = 2,690). To address recommendations for increasing mental healthcare, we designed a survey to investigate Cambodians’ knowledge about mental health constructs. Results indicated that only 18.9% of Cambodians knew about psychology, and chi-square analyses revealed that women, individuals in rural areas, and individuals with significant distress due to cultural symptoms and syndromes reported knowing about psychology significantly less than their male and non-distressed counterparts. Additionally, those who reported higher income and higher levels of education indicated significantly higher rates of psychological knowledge, as did those with clinically significant rates of PTSD, at a rate of knowledge approaching significance. Implications for this study include the need to tailor interventions and resources to vulnerable populations, to assess the fit of current recommendations for the Cambodian context, and to further emphasize the need for culturally responsive interventions that address all presentations of Cambodian distress and align with understandings of mental health within the nation.

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Section: Cambodian Mental Healthsupporting

confidence: 84%

Knowledge of psychology in Cambodia: Exploring the relationships to demographics, psychopathology, and idioms of distress

Kelley¹,

Seponski²,

Khann

et al. 2022

Transcult Psychiatry

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“…For example, it is clinically important to know that a Cambodian patient is having orthostatic dizziness, sleep paralysis, or khyaˆl attacks, which produce catastrophic cognitions and great distress. We have shown how these idioms of distress improve over the course of treatment (Hinton, Kredlow, et al, 2012); are a key part of psychopathology such as trauma-related disorder (Hinton et al, 2013;Hinton, Hinton, & Eng, 2015); are at the center of causal networks (Hinton & Good, 2016); are an important indicator of suicide risk (Armes et al, 2018); are a better indicator than PTSD of trauma-event severity and of self-perceived health ; and are important to address in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) to modify catastrophic cognitions and to increase credibility and positive expectancy .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Culturally sensitive assessment of anxious-depressive distress in the Cambodian population: Avoiding category truncation

Hinton

Seponski²,

Khann

et al. 2019

Transcult Psychiatry

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In a large national survey in Cambodia (N = 2689), the present study investigated the prominence of certain culturally salient symptoms and syndromes in the general population and among those with anxious-depressive distress (as determined by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, or HSCL). Using an abbreviated Cambodian Symptom and Syndrome Addendum (CSSA), we found that the CSSA complaints were particularly elevated among those with anxious-depressive distress. Those with anxious-depressive distress had statistically greater mean scores on all the CSSA items as well as severity of endorsement analyzed by percentage: among those with HSCL caseness, 75.3% were bothered “quite a bit” or “extremely” by “thinking a lot” (vs. 27.5% without caseness); 53.8% were bothered by “standing up and feeling dizzy” (vs. 13.8%); and 45.6% by blurry vision (vs. 16.8%). In a logistic regression analysis to predict anxious-depressive distress, 51% of the variance was accounted for by five predictors: “weak heart,” “thinking a lot,” dizziness, “ khyâl hitting up from the stomach,” and sleep paralysis. Using ROC analysis, a cut-off score of 1.81 on the CSSA was optimal as a screener to indicate anxious-depressive distress, giving a sensitivity of 0.86. The study results suggest that to avoid category truncation (i.e., the omission of key complaints that are part of an assessed distress domain) when profiling anxious-depressive distress among Cambodia population that items other than those in standard psychopathology measures should be assessed such as “thinking a lot,” “weak heart,” “blurry vision,” and “dizziness upon standing up.”

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“…Some studies mentioned that the younger the age of suicide attempt, the higher the number of repetitions (29). On the other hand, adolescence is a sensitive period in life, and the suicide attempt is increasing among adolescences worldwide, as 8% of high school students stated they experienced at least one suicide attempt (31). The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a vi- tal period so that youth experience many changes in their life goals, emotional bonds, and worldview, which make them more sensitive (32).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide and Attempted Suicide Epidemiology in Sirjan in 2018

Balvardi

Imani-Goghary

Babaee

et al. 2021

Int J High Risk Behav Addict

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Background: Prevalence of suicide and attempted suicide has increased due to social, economic, and cultural factors. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the suicide and attempted suicide epidemiology in Sirjan, Iran, in 2018. Methods: Following a cross-sectional design, suicide attempts and their related factors were investigated in the city of Sirjan in 2018. Data were collected by a researcher-developed checklist and were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics (i.e., chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests) by SPSS. Results: A total of 768 people referred to Sirjan’s hospitals with a diagnosis of suicide attempt were investigated. One-year suicide attempts incidence for males and females was 120.6 (N = 391) and 116.3 (N = 377) per 100,000 people, respectively. The mean age of males and females was 26.0 ± 9.2 and 24.2 ± 8.1, respectively. Most cases were aged 20 - 29 and 10 - 19 years. The male-to-female ratio was higher in the 20 - 29 age group, but more females, most suicide cases were aged 10 - 19, and this difference was significant. Most of them were single, urbanite, educated up to high school diploma, or were school-goers. Self-poisoning (i.e. drug intoxication) was the most common method of suicide attempts. Suicides that led to death were 3.7 per 100000 people, higher rates were observed in men, younger age, single status, urbanite, and those with school diplomas. Hanging was the most common suicide method. Conclusions: Sirjan is one of the areas with high rates of suicide attempts; therefore, the findings of the present study can be regarded as a step forward in future studies to consider interventions intended to improve mental health, as well as to find useful solutions to prevent suicide occurrence.

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Mental Health Indicators of Suicide in Cambodian Women

Cited by 4 publications

References 21 publications

Knowledge of psychology in Cambodia: Exploring the relationships to demographics, psychopathology, and idioms of distress

Knowledge of psychology in Cambodia: Exploring the relationships to demographics, psychopathology, and idioms of distress

Culturally sensitive assessment of anxious-depressive distress in the Cambodian population: Avoiding category truncation

Suicide and Attempted Suicide Epidemiology in Sirjan in 2018

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