Suicide claims over 700,000 lives annually and remains a leading cause of premature mortality worldwide. Despite decades of research into its psychological, social, and environmental risk factors, global suicide rates have shown little sustained decline. This persistence underscores the urgent need to identify additional modifiable, upstream targets for prevention and intervention. Recently, nutrition has emerged as one such candidate. Diet and metabolic health have been increasingly linked to the development and course of various psychiatric conditions, including depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, yet their relationship to suicide risk remains comparatively understudied. Nonetheless, a small but growing number of cohort and population-based studies have begun linking healthier dietary patterns to lower suicide-related outcomes. Although causal evidence remains limited, these epidemiological signals are supported by several convergent biological mechanisms, including systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, disrupted neuroplasticity, and gut-brain dysregulation. Critically, these mechanisms readily map onto the affective, cognitive, and interpersonal constructs central to contemporary ideation-to-action models of suicide, lending support to the incorporation of nutritional status into existing frameworks. Taken together, this convergence argues that diet and nutrition should be recognized as modifiable, scalable, and biologically grounded targets for suicide prevention, and underscores the need for future randomized dietary intervention trials, routine nutritional screening in psychiatric care, and evaluation of food policy as an upstream prevention strategy.
Structural social connections are vital for well-being in later life. Their absence, referred to as social isolation, is associated with adverse health outcomes, including loneliness and depression. Although social connections are generally protective, different configurations of relational ties may exert distinct effects on mental health. This study aimed to identify gender-specific patterns of structural social connections and examine their associations with loneliness and depressive symptoms. We analyzed data from 2022 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) and stratified participants by gender (men: n = 41,266; women: n = 46,023). Latent class analysis was conducted to identify structural social connection patterns. Additionally, we examined the association of each class with loneliness and depressive symptoms using modified Poisson regression analysis. We identified the same five classes for both men and women: Class 1: Community-Engaged Group (6940/8118); Class 2: Hybrid Interaction Group (2631/3331); Class 3: Traditional Interaction Group (13,029/17,951); Class 4: Family-Centered Group (14,822/10,336); Class 5: Structurally Isolated Group (3844/6287). Among men, the Structurally Isolated Group showed the highest prevalence ratios for loneliness and depressive symptoms, whereas among women, the Family-Centered Group was most strongly associated with these outcomes. Notably, the Hybrid Interaction Group did not differ significantly from the Community-Engaged Group in its associations with loneliness or depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that vulnerability differed by gender: structurally isolated men and family-centered women faced the greatest risks. Gender-specific strategies that address both traditional and hybrid forms of connection may improve mental health in aging populations.
Background Internalized shame refers to a persistent form of self-directed shame in which negative evaluations of the self-become incorporated into one's sense of identity rather than remaining focused on a specific behavior. Negative Perception of Stress refers to the extent to which individuals appraise environmental demands as exceeding their available coping resources. Childhood trauma and insecure attachment have been identified as important factors associated with internalized shame, while Negative Perception of Stress may help explain these associations. This study examined the mediating role of Negative Perception of Stress in the associations between childhood trauma, insecure attachment, and internalized shame among university students. Methods A cross-sectional correlational design was employed using structural equation modeling. A total of 450 university students completed standardized measures of childhood trauma, insecure attachment, Negative Perception of Stress, and internalized shame. Results Childhood trauma (β = .25, p < .001) and insecure attachment (β = .27, p < .001) were positively associated with internalized shame. Both variables were also significantly associated with Negative Perception of Stress, which, in turn, was positively related to internalized shame (β = .41, p < .001). Bootstrap analysis indicated significant indirect associations between childhood trauma and internalized shame, as well as between insecure attachment and internalized shame, through Negative Perception of Stress (p < .001). Conclusions The findings highlight Negative Perception of Stress as an important statistical pathway linking adverse childhood experiences and insecure attachment with internalized shame. Interventions targeting stress-related distress, trauma-related experiences, and attachment insecurity may help reduce internalized shame among university students.
Introduction Perinatal depression (PD) is a heterogeneous condition characterized by substantial interindividual variability in symptom presentation and clinical course. Neuroticism and insecure attachment styles contribute to this heterogeneity, yet PD is often treated as a unitary disorder. This study aimed to identify personality-based subtypes of PD and examine their associations with clinical, psychosocial, and perinatal characteristics. Methods A cohort of 1664 women was assessed during late pregnancy within a longitudinal perinatal mental health study in Southern Italy. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Personality traits and attachment dimensions were assessed with the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire. Resilience, coping, and quality of life were evaluated using CD-RISC, Brief COPE, and WHOQOL-BREF. Women scoring ≥12 on the EPDS were classified as probable PD cases and underwent hierarchical and k-means clustering analyzes based on neuroticism, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance. Sociodemographic, psychosocial, clinical, and pregnancy-related variables were subsequently compared across the identified clusters. Results Three exploratory personality-based vulnerability profiles were identified: High, Intermediate, and Low Vulnerability. The High Vulnerability Profile showed greater depressive severity, poorer psychological well-being, lower resilience, greater dysfunctional coping, and higher psychiatric vulnerability. Conversely, the Low Vulnerability Profile displayed lower neuroticism and attachment insecurity despite clinically significant depressive symptoms. Conclusion These findings support the heterogeneity of perinatal depression and suggest that personality and attachment dimensions may contribute to distinct clinical presentations. Their integration into perinatal mental health assessment could facilitate earlier identification of vulnerable women and support personalized prevention and care strategies.
