克索瑞波的單心宅

此篇文章轉錄自Medical News Today（點此連結）；文章主要論述：氣喘與空氣污染與自殺機率（自殺危機）有正相關，當短時間內的大氣塵粒（airborne particles）增加，自殺率將比之前的自殺率提昇百分之九，且罹患心血管疾病的病患自殺率也比原先自殺率提昇百分之十九。第一、這篇研究結果台灣研究團隊有參與（包括高醫、北醫、中山醫學院），數據應有包括台灣城市，所以這篇研究結果是基於台灣經驗、適用於台灣的；第二、通常我們會認為自殺是屬於心理疾病或認知思考的範疇，或頂多到生理機制，但並未與「大環境」（nature environment）連結，但其實有許多研究以環境為基底來觀看社會現象，譬如：有研究指出地區犯罪率與當地水污染狀況有關；第三、這依舊是「相關」研究，無法建立明確的因果影響機制，因此空氣污染只是反應該地區的都市化，而都市中的工作型態因而影響自殺機率（這只是一種假設可能，或者都市化反應的人口密度才是真正與自殺率有關），相關法的缺陷就是中間有太多混淆變項；第四、這第四點要回到第二點來說明，心理學的角度實屬個人，社會學屬社會集體層次，但可能個體或群體的心理現象是與地形氣候有關（而且這關聯超乎我們想像），譬如：季節性憂鬱症（seasonal depression）即是與太陽日照時間有關，而太陽日照時間長短與地球緯度有關。最近，環境議題（墨西哥灣漏油事件、白海豚會轉彎、溼地保護、六輕失火）在新聞中吵得沸沸揚揚，你有沒有思考過，你現在的心情、心理健康可能與這些自然環境息息相關呢？（好吧，或者是蝴蝶效應般的相關）。

Large Studies Link Asthma And Air Pollution To Suicide Risk

16 Jul 2010

Suicide rates increase not only as a result of mental illness, but also when there are difficulties with breathing, according to two large Asian population studies that detected the effects of air pollution and asthma, an illness that itself is exacerbated by poor air conditions.

Changsoo Kim, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues obtained air pollution measurements for seven cities in South Korea and examined relationships between the timing of particulate matter increases and the 4,341 suicides occurring in 2004. Short-term increases in airborne particles were associated with a 9 percent increase in suicide, with a 19 percent increase in suicide for people with cardiovascular disease. Data on suicides were obtained from a national database.

National suicide records were also used in a second study by Chian-Jue Kuo, M.D., M.S., and colleagues to link suicides in Taiwan over 12 years with cases of asthma in nearly 163,000 high school students. Adolescents with asthma were twice as likely to commit suicide as were teens without asthma, and those with more severe asthma had a higher suicide rate.

Both studies showed a temporal relationship-the suicides came after the asthma or air pollution spikes. In addition, the relationships to suicide were independent of psychiatric illness.

The studies will appear on July 15 at AJP in Advance , the online advance edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. Funding for the Kim study was received from the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea.

Funding for the Kuo study was received from the Environmental Protective Administration, National Health Research Institutes, Kaohsiung Medical University, National Science Council, Chungshan Medical University Hospital, and Taipei City Hospital in Taiwan and from the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S.

Source:

American Psychiatric Association