The influence of child and adolescent maltreatment on personality disorders and criminal activity in adult women

Introduction

Since the rates of female criminality are rising it would appear important to conduct the study of the relationship between criminal behaviour and psychiatric diagnoses in female offenders.

Objectives

The main purpose of this investigation is to find out origins of crimes in women and to reveal the influence of child and adolescent maltreatment on personality disorders in adult women.

Methods

Clinical psychopathological, psychological, statistical.

Results

A cohort of 13 females with diagnosis of personality disorders was examined. All of them had committed crimes of violence. In the majority of the sample women had a previous history of psychiatric admissions (child psychiatric hospitals, adolescent units). The retrospective review revealed that the majority of women in their childhood were exposed to emotional, physical and sexual abuse in their families. Our results point that maltreatment may distort personality formation and social adjustment and contribute to behaviour problems, negative relation to socialization and criminal behaviour in adulthood.

Conclusions

The study revealed that psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence are predictive of adult criminality in females and also revealed the risk of girls who are victims of maltreatment to become a perpetrator in adulthood. This findings may be used as prognostic indicators of development of aggression in female forensic patients.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Women’s mental health during the COVID 19 pandemic and the problem of domestic violence in a lockdown situation

Introduction

The current situation caused by restrictive measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic provokes the high level of aggressiveness and all forms of domestic violence. These results in mental health problems.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to find out the consequences of domestic violence against women and to identify psychological problems and mental disorders in women.

Methods

A cohort of 18 females was examined by psychiatrists and psychologists. All women turned to specialists at the Moscow Institute of Psychiatry for help.

Results

All women were victims of violence by their husbands and partners. Lockdown situation associated with COVID 19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem of domestic violence. Clinical assessment has revealed different depressive symptoms, anxiety, fear, suicidal tendencies forming the clinical picture of adjustment disorder (2 cases), acute reaction to stress (3 cases), post-traumatic stress disorder (2 cases), depressive episode (8 cases), eating disorders behavior in the form of bulimia and anorexia (3 cases).

Conclusions

The research has revealed that domestic abuse against women associated with lockdown situation during the COVID 19 pandemic often results in psychological and long-term mental health problems. In these cases, prevention is needed to combat violence against women with the participation of public health specialists, psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

A global database of Holocene paleotemperature records

A comprehensive database of paleoclimate records is needed to place recent warming into the longer-term context of natural climate variability. We present a global compilation of quality-controlled, published, temperature-sensitive proxy records extending back 12,000 years through the Holocene. Data were compiled from 679 sites where time series cover at least 4000 years, are resolved at sub-millennial scale (median spacing of 400 years or finer) and have at least one age control point every 3000 years, with cut-off values slackened in data-sparse regions. The data derive from lake sediment (51%), marine sediment (31%), peat (11%), glacier ice (3%), and other natural archives. The database contains 1319 records, including 157 from the Southern Hemisphere. The multi-proxy database comprises paleotemperature time series based on ecological assemblages, as well as biophysical and geochemical indicators that reflect mean annual or seasonal temperatures, as encoded in the database. This database can be used to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of Holocene temperature at global to regional scales, and is publicly available in Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) format.

Temperature change as a driver of spatial patterns and long-term trends in chironomid (Insecta: Diptera) diversity

Anthropogenic activities have led to a global decline in biodiversity, and monitoring studies indicate that both insect communities and wetland ecosystems are particularly affected. However, there is a need for long-term data (over centennial or millennial timescales) to better understand natural community dynamics and the processes that govern the observed trends. Chironomids (Insecta: Diptera: Chironomidae) are often the most abundant insects in lake ecosystems, sensitive to environmental change, and, because their larval exoskeleton head capsules preserve well in lake sediments, they provide a unique record of insect community dynamics through time. Here, we provide the results of a metadata analysis of chironomid diversity across a range of spatial and temporal scales. First, we analyse spatial trends in chironomid diversity using Northern Hemispheric data sets overall consisting of 837 lakes. Our results indicate that in most of our data sets, summer temperature (T_jul ) is strongly associated with spatial trends in modern-day chironomid diversity. We observe a strong increase in chironomid alpha diversity with increasing T_jul in regions with present-day T_jul between 2.5 and 14°C. In some areas with T_jul  > 14°C, chironomid diversity stabilizes or declines. Second, we demonstrate that the direction and amplitude of change in alpha diversity in a compilation of subfossil chironomid records spanning the last glacial-interglacial transition (~15,000-11,000 years ago) are similar to those observed in our modern data. A compilation of Holocene records shows that during phases when the amplitude of temperature change was small, site-specific factors had a greater influence on the chironomid fauna obscuring the chironomid diversity-temperature relationship. Our results imply expected overall chironomid diversity increases in colder regions such as the Arctic under sustained global warming, but with complex and not necessarily predictable responses for individual sites.

Climate-driven regime shifts in the biological communities of arctic lakes

Fifty-five paleolimnological records from lakes in the circumpolar Arctic reveal widespread species changes and ecological reorganizations in algae and invertebrate communities since approximately anno Domini 1850. The remoteness of these sites, coupled with the ecological characteristics of taxa involved, indicate that changes are primarily driven by climate warming through lengthening of the summer growing season and related limnological changes. The widespread distribution and similar character of these changes indicate that the opportunity to study arctic ecosystems unaffected by human influences may have disappeared.