Internet and Psychiatry
  • Home
    • Editorials
    • Research news
    • Research papers
    • Interviews with eminent psychiatrists
    • Ten years ago
    • Fifteen years ago
  • Topics
    • Alcohol and Drug Abuse
    • Anxiety Disorders
    • Biomedical Science
    • Compulsive gambling
    • Disaster Medicine
    • Education
    • General Medicine
      • Acupuncture
      • Physical medicine and Rehabilitation
    • Human Rights
    • Interviews with eminent psychiatrists
    • Mood Disorders
      • Bipolar Disorder
      • Depression
      • Seasonal Affective Disorder
    • Neurological Disorders
    • Other Psychiatric Disorders
    • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
    • Sexual Behavior
  • Books
    • Comorbidity of Depression and Alcohol Use Disorders
    • “Immigration and Mental Health” chapter abstracts
    • “Internet and Suicide” chapter abstracts
    • “Neurobiology of PTSD” chapter abstracts
    • “Suicidal Behavior in Alcohol…” chapter abstracts
    • “Suicide in the Military” chapter abstracts
    • “Terror and Suicide” chapter abstracts
    • “War and Suicide” chapter abstracts
  • Editors
    • Leo Sher, M.D.
    • Alexander Vilens, M.S.
  • Guests
    • Distinguished Guests
    • Our Contributors
  • Reflections
    • Poetry
    • Quotes

"Immigration and Mental Health" chapter abstracts

A Model of Suicidal Behavior among Immigrants with Psychiatric Disorders

September 3, 2011

Leo Sher
Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA
Immigration and Mental Health: Stress, Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Behavior Among Immigrants and Refugees. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2010, 350 pages.

The term “immigration” is usually used to denote international immigration. The United Nations considers a long term international migrant to be “A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence.” Immigrants’ voyages to a new land have been among the most exciting and noble of human endeavors [4]. It is the amazing courage to flee oppression, to leave behind everything that is familiar, and to chance the hostility of a completely alien culture in order to find freedom, opportunity, and a better life. Many and many immigrants and refugees, including Albert Einstein, Ernst B. Chain, Selman A. Waksman, Enrico Fermi, Sigmund Freud, Eric Fromm, Bertold Brecht, Jean Gabin, Charles de Gaulle, Thomas Mann, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), Victor Hugo, David Ben-Gurion and Henry A. Kissinger, have made a remarkable contribution to the welfare and happiness of mankind. The editors of this book, Leo Sher, M.D. and Alexander Vilens, M.S. are also immigrants. Immigration is difficult and stressful. Many immigrants suffer from psychiatric disorders and some immigrants attempt or commit suicide. In this chapter, I propose a model of suicidal behavior among immigrants with psychiatric disorders. All immigrants experience pre-immigration, immigration and post-immigration stress. Immigrants are frequently depressed. Depression in immigrants is associated with anxiety, post-traumatic symptoms, alcohol and/or drug use/abuse/dependence, pessimism, and stress-related medical illnesses such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Psychiatric and medical problems, genetic make-up, childhood experiences, availability of a social support, cultural acceptability of suicide, the degree of pre-immigration, immigration, and post-immigration stress, and other factors determine the vulnerability for suicidal behavior among immigrants with psychiatric disorders. Suicidal acts can be attributed to the coincidence of a trigger with a vulnerability for suicidal behavior. Triggers for suicidal behavior among immigrants include financial problems, relationship problems, mood instability (e.g., the onset of a major depressive episode), alcohol intoxication, abuse/assault, and acute medical illness. Suicide prevention among immigrants requires comprehensive, coordinated, and continuous health and mental health services for immigrant populations provided by culturally competent professionals.

Related Posts

"Immigration and Mental Health" chapter abstracts /

Immigration and Suicide: An Overview

"Immigration and Mental Health" chapter abstracts /

Immigrants and Suicidal Behavior: The Role of Gender

"Immigration and Mental Health" chapter abstracts /

Suicidal Behavior among Hispanic Immigrants in the United States

‹ Immigration and Suicide: An Overview › An evolutionary hypothesis of suicide: why it could be biologically adaptive and is so prevalent in certain occupations

Editorials

  • Fluvoxamine attenuates COVID-19 disease
  • What? Botox injections can mitigate depressions?
  • Smoking, suicide risk, and the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Omicron spread and oral antiviral pills are big news. The advent of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir: called Paxlovid

Research Papers

  • COVID-19 mortality in Europe and the ’Iron Curtain’ between East and West
  • Examination of depressive signs and symptoms among 803 University students in seven Universities and Colleges. Hungary, Romania, Serbia.
  • Examination of spirituality and the dimensions of spirituality among 803 students in seven different Universities. Hungary, Romania and Serbia.
  • Examination of depressive signs and symptoms among 932 students in eight different secondary schools in Hungary

Research News

  • Thirty years of publications in the field of suicidology
  • Osteoporosis drugs are associated with depression and anxiety
  • A study of relation between the use of cannabis in adolescence and self-harm or suicide
  • Senior WISE intervention: Gender differences in bodily pain and trait anxiety

Latest News

  • Suicide mortality in the U.S. decreased from 2018 to 2020 after increasing since 2000
  • The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Task Force on Men’s Mental Health – January 2022 update
  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021
  • 2021 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report

Interviews with eminent psychiatrists

  • Interview with Professor Shih-Ku Lin
  • Interview with Professor Masahito Fushimi
  • Interview with Professor Maurizio Pompili
  • Interview with Professor Marco Sarchiapone

Ten Years Ago

  • Suicidal ideation in depressed patients with or without comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
  • Treatment of suicide attempters with bipolar disorder: a randomized clinical trial
  • Posttraumatic stress disorder and the Neuroevolutionary Time-depth Principle
  • The role of endogenous opioids and monoamine neurotransmitters in non-suicidal self-injury

Back to Top

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Copyright © 2022 AVCalc LLC. All rights reserved worldwide.