Leo Sher, M.D. A U.S. National Vital Statistics System report, “Suicide mortality in the United States, 2001-2021” was published in April 2023 (1). This report updates previous data by presenting final suicide rates from 2001 through 2021 by sex and age as well as rates by race and Hispanic origin for 2020 and 2021. Data […]
Leo Sher, M.D. A research report “The association between vitamin D serum levels, supplementation, and suicide attempts and intentional self-harm” has recently been published in PLoS One (1). The authors examined the associations between Vitamin D supplementation, 25(OH) blood serum levels, suicide attempts, and intentional self-harm in a population of U.S. Veterans. Veterans with any […]
Jacob M. Appel, M.D., J.D. Every first-year law student is likely aware of the venerable legal maxim, popularized by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in Northern Securities Co. v. United States, that “hard cases make bad law.” In other words, a particularly disturbing set of facts or events may lead well-intentioned judges to make […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Our research work, “Clinical features of individuals with schizotypal personality disorder with and without suicidal ideation” has just been published in Psychiatry Research (1). Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is classified in DSM-5 as a Cluster A personality disorder (2). Cluster A personality disorders are described as odd or eccentric conditions. Studies have […]
Leo Sher, M.D. A research report, “Fasting for 20 h does not affect exercise-induced increases in circulating BDNF in humans” has been published in the Journal of Physiology online ahead of print (1). Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand report that 6 minutes of high-intensity exercise on a regular basis can prolong […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Expertscape, a leading international rating agency, published the January 9, 2023, list of top world experts in the field of suicidology (1). The list is based on 29,387 articles published since 2012. The current database of articles was compiled on January 9, 2023. The Expertscape version number is wa09s4347. According to Expertscape, […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Suicide is one of the leading causes of liability against a psychiatrist. Suicide may also be a cause of liability against a non-psychiatric physician. Decreasing the risk of liability requires knowing the phenomenology of suicide, suicide risk assessment, understanding how malpractice cases develop, exploring the issues of foreseeability and risk evaluation, and […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Our research work, “A longer biological night in long sleepers than in short sleepers” was published 20 years ago in the January 2003 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (1). Habitual sleep duration varies considerably among people. We wanted to determine whether individual differences in sleep duration are associated […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Dr. Slavko Ziherl, M.D., Ph.D. (1945 – 2012) was an eminent Slovenian physician. He graduated from the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine in Slovenia. Dr. Ziherl studied psychiatry at the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana in Slovenia. He also studied psychiatry in the Netherlands, Great Britain, United States, and Canada. Dr. Ziherl […]
Leo Sher, M.D. Our research report, “Does first episode polarity predict risk for suicide attempt in bipolar disorder?” was published 15 years ago in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders (1). We tested the hypothesis that the polarity of a patient’s first mood episode would be a marker for bipolar disorder […]
