2009年12月27日日曜日
自殺率
2009年12月25日 19時58分 更新:12月25日 22時37分
警察庁は25日、11月の自殺者数が2494人だったと公表し、1~11月の累計は3万181人(昨年同期比445人増)となり12年連続で3万人を超えた。12月もこのペースで推移すれば、統計の残る78年以降で最多だった03年の3万4427人よりは少ないものの、08年の3万2249人を上回る見通し。金融危機が深刻化した昨年10月以降長引く不況で、経済的要因による自殺が増えているとみられる。
警察庁によると、今年の自殺者は▽1月2661人▽2月2483人▽3月3089人▽4月3053人▽5月2993人▽6月2840人▽7月2765人▽8月2512人▽9月2510人▽10月2781人▽11月2494人。月別の自殺者数を初めて公表した昨年と比べて1~8月は連続で上回ったが、9~11月は下回った。
男性は2万1566人、女性は8615人で、男性が約71%。11月末までの月平均の自殺者数は約2744人で、08年の月平均を約57人上回っている。
遺体が発見された都道府県別(1~11月)では、東京が2760人で最多。以下、大阪1855人、神奈川1689人。最少は鳥取の151人。増加の割合が目立ったのは沖縄で、昨年同期比72人増の384人となった。
内閣府参与として「自殺対策緊急戦略チーム」メンバーに加わっているNPO法人「自殺対策支援センターライフリンク」の清水康之代表は「また超えてしまったか、というのが率直な感想。地域別や時期別、職業別などに自殺の実態分析を進めており、ターゲットを絞った形での対策を来年3月に打ち出したい」と話している。【千代崎聖史】
◇自治体が中高年対策
自殺者がまた3万人を超え、対策に携わる関係者らにため息が広がる中、一部自治体は自殺者の5割以上を占める中高年向けに対策をとり始めている。
内閣府が11月にまとめた「自殺対策100日プラン」の一つで、中高年向けの対策として月別の自殺者が最多の3月に実施する「お父さん、眠れてる?キャンペーン」(仮称)は、静岡県精神保健福祉センターが同県富士市で取り組んでいる啓発活動がモデルだ。
同センターは、自殺の前兆とされるうつ病の人たちのほとんどが不眠であることに着目し、中高年の労働者が多い富士市を舞台に、06年から不眠防止の啓発活動を続けている。
「パパ、ちゃんと寝てる?」
ポスターの中でささやいているのはセーラー服姿の女子高生。不眠が2週間以上続く場合は受診を呼びかける内容で、県は毎年約5000枚を作成。お父さんが立ち寄りそうなパチンコ店や酒販店などに掲示した。
同センターは「中高年のお父さんは、娘に弱い。それでキャッチフレーズにたどりついた」と話す。駅で配布される時刻表に印刷、県内民放テレビのCMでも集中して流した。05年まで増加傾向だった富士市の自殺者は06、07年と連続して減少したという。
あるNPO関係者は「中高年は弱音をはきづらい世代。自殺対策の入り口としては効果的だ」と評価する。
一方、宮城県栗原市は、市内の自殺者の遺書を分析したところ生活苦や多重債務が多かったとして、多重債務者救済に取り組んでいる。07年には5人の担当者を配置して多重債務専用の相談電話を開設。08年度の相談件数は323件、今年度も10月末までで約190件に上る。
08年には市が1億円を出資し、市中の金融機関より安い利率による多重債務者向け貸付制度「栗原市のぞみローン」を創設、12件の利用があった。市健康推進課の担当者は「今年10月からは無料法律相談と健康相談を組み合わせるワンストップサービスを始めた。今後はハローワークとの連携も深めたい」と話している。【佐藤浩、千代崎聖史】
毎日
http://mainichi.jp/select/today/archive/news/2009/12/25/20091226k0000m040059000c.html
2009年12月23日水曜日
Japanese Psychotherapy
The current of psychotherapy in Japan has long been naturally moving towards all current psychotherapies being used in a form of integrated psychotherapy. The teachings of all the most leading and influential teachers of the predominate schools of psychotherapy at least since the end of the war in the Pacific have favoured an acceptance and respect for all other major systems of psychotherapy. The answers and comments provided by all respondents surveyed as part of this research on the use of all of the major methods of psychotherapy currently utilized to nurture the well being of clients and patients of all kinds overwhelming show that they vary and tailor their approach for each and every one of them. So very few practicing psychotherapists here insist on just one approach. Therefore it is a very personal and consensually concordant current that has resulted in integrative psychotherapy becoming popular in Japan too.
The very nature of Japanese culture with its Buddhist roots still deeply influencing the ways that all people relate to one another here is integrative in nature and current modalities of Japanese psychotherapy too have been adopted, adapted and encouraged to grow and advance in a spirit of harmony and cooperation between professionals and clients and patients always with a respect of the intrinsic inter-relationship of human interaction being at the heart of things." © Andrew Grimes JSCCP, JCP, M.Sci. Pth.
2009年12月1日火曜日
By Catherine Lewis, AHJ Editor -- Published: November 30, 2009
If you have battled depression, or are close to someone that has, you would love to know the key to curing it forever. Well, you may have one option when it comes to addressing this debilitating condition. New research is now being done that indicates that there are foods that can actually help fight depression. Which foods, you ask? Keep reading to find out.
What Foods Fight Depression?
Researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, discovered several foods that appear to be beneficial for depression.
* Cold water fish – Salmon, sardines, and tuna are included in this list.
* Walnuts – Walnuts - like cold-water fish - contain omega-3 fatty acids.
* Sugar beets and molasses – Sugar beets and molasses contain a substance known as uridine. This substance also seems to have positive effects on depression.
This food list could explain why those in Scandinavian and Asian countries have lower instances of depression. People in these regions tend to have diets that are very high in fish. The researchers found that when omega-3 fatty acids were used in conjunction with uridine in low doses that it was effective against depression.
Japanese researchers have findings that also support these conclusions. While this team of researchers was in Finland they surveyed 1,767 residents. These survey results caused them to conclude that eating fish more than two times per week has a protective effect against both depression and suicide.
How Do These Foods Fight Depression?
Exactly how these foods fight depression is not known. Researchers suspect that they may change some fats in the brain membrane. They believe that this could make it easier for the brain chemicals to pass through. The researchers at McLean used lab rats but warn that human metabolism is significantly different from that of rats.
Kathleen Franco, MD is the professor of medicine and psychiatry at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Ohio. She believes that diet along with supplements, combined with medication and psychotherapy, have a role in depression treatment. Dr. Franco says, "It is recommended that individuals eat a healthy diet [including] fruits and vegetables with antioxidants; omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, tuna and some other fish; and vitamins that include all the B's."
Depression Foods: Other Possibilities
There are other types of foods and dietary supplements that may affect depression as well:
* B vitamins - Studies indicate low levels of the B vitamin folic acid along with high levels of homocysteine, a protein, make you more likely to be depressed. Folic acid, vitamin B2, B6, and B12 decrease levels of homocysteine. B vitamins can be obtained by eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and legumes.
* Amino acids – An important amino acid, Tryptophan, is needed to make the brain chemical serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are understood to be one cause of depression.
* Carbohydrates - Carbs are changed into sugar that your brain needs to function. Eating too much sugar often causes peaks and valleys in blood glucose levels that leads to or aggravate symptoms of depression. Stick to a diet low in refined carbs and sugar and high in fruits and vegetables.
* St. John’s Wort - There has been some evidence that St. John's Wort has been helpful in treating mild depression. However, two recent studies reported that it was no more effective than a placebo in cases of major depression.
More research is needed, but the outlook is quite hopeful.
2009年10月29日木曜日
JAPAN: Death from Overwork
This article states: that ‘karoshi’ has taken on a new face — suicide. "This is something new," he said. "About 20 years ago, heart attacks or strokes were a symbol of ‘karoshi’ in Japan. In 1994, for instance, Japan’s Economic Planning Agency estimated the number of ‘karoshi’ deaths at around 1,000, or 5 percent of all deaths from cardiovascular diseases, in the 25 to 59 age group.
Today, workers are committing suicide, and that is a major change, he said. Of the more than 30,000 suicides recorded last year, based on data from the national police agency, Kawahito said 10,000 were believed to be related to overwork.
I do not agree with some of this. It is not something new that today workers in Japan are committing suicide because of depression and the stress of overwork. Karaoshi is death through overwork resulting in the worker literally dying on the job. The suicide of thousands of workers every year due to depression and overworking are two aspects of a problem that have existed side by side in Japan for over a decade. There was a major change in the suicide rate in Japan, but it happened over ten years ago.I am a JSCCP clinical psychologist and JFP psychotherapist working in Japan for over 20 years. I would like to put forward a perspective on some of the main reasons behind the unacceptably high suicide numbers Japan and so will limit my comments to what I know about here in Japan.
Mental health professionals in Japan have long known that the reason for the unnecessarily high suicide rate in Japan is due to unemployment, bankruptcies, and the increasing levels of stress on businessmen and other salaried workers who have suffered enormous hardship in Japan since the bursting of the stock market bubble here that peaked around 1997. Until that year Japan had annual suicide of rate figures between 22,000 and 24,000 each year. Following the bursting of the stock market and the long term economic downturn that has followed here since the suicide rate in 1998 increased by around 35% and since 1998 the number of people killing themselves each year in Japan has consistently remained well over 30,000 each and every year to the present day.
The current worldwide recession is of course impacting Japan too, so unless the new administration initiates very proactive and well funded local and nationwide suicide prevention programs and other mental health care initiatives, including tackling the widespread problem of clinical depression suffered by so many of the general population, it is very difficult to foresee the previous government's stated target to reduce the suicide rate to around 23,000 by the year 2016 as being achievable. On the contrary the suicide rate could even get even worse is more is not done to prevent this terrible loss of life.Unless the new administration initiates very proactive and well-funded local and nationwide suicide prevention programs and other mental health care initiatives, including tackling the widespread problem of clinical depression suffered by so many of the general population, it is very difficult to foresee the previous government's stated goal of reducing the suicide rate to around 23,000 by 2016 as achievable.
The current numbers licensed psychiatrists (around 13,000), Japan Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists clinical psychologists (19,830 as of 2009), and Psychiatric Social Workers (39,108 as of 2009) must indeed be increased. In order for professional mental health counseling and psychotherapy services to be covered for depression and other mental illnesses by public health insurance it would seem advisable that positive action is taken to resume and complete the negotiations on how to achieve national licensing for clinical psychologists in Japan through the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and not just the Ministry of Education as is the current situation. These discussions were ongoing between all concerned mental health professional authorities that in the ongoing select committee and ministerial levels that were ongoing during the Koizumi administration. With the current economic recession adding even more hardship and stress in the lives its citizens, now would seem to be a prime opportunity for the responsible Japanese to take a pro-active approach to finally providing government approval for national licensing for clinical psychologists who provide mental health care counseling and psychotherapy services to the people of Japan.
During these last ten years of these relentlessly high annual suicide rate numbers the English media seems in the main to have done little more than have someone goes through the files and do a story on the so-called suicide forest or internet suicide clubs and copycat suicides (whether cheap heating fuel like charcoal briquettes or even cheaper household cleaning chemicals) and mirrors at stations, and now lights at stations,
Economic hardship, bankruptcies and unemployment have been the main cause of suicide in Japan over the last 10 years, as the well detailed reports behind the suicide rate numbers that have been issued every year until now by the National Police Agency in Japan show only to clearly if any journalist is prepared to learn Japanese or get a bilingual researcher to do the research to get to the real heart of the tragic story of the long term and unnecessarily high suicide rate problem in Japan.
I would also like to suggest that as many Japanese people have very high reading skills in English that any articles (or works of fiction which I appreciate this is) dealing with suicide in Japan could usefully provide contact details for hotlines and support services for people who are depressed and feeling suicidal.
Useful telephone numbers and links for Japanese residents of Japan who speak Japanese and are feeling depressed or suicidal:
Japan: 0120-738-556
Tokyo: 3264 4343
2009年5月18日月曜日
貧困、生活苦、自殺
学生が11.3%増となり、職業別で増加が目立ったほか、「生活苦」「失業」など不況の影響がみられる原因・動機も大幅に増えた。
08年の自殺者は前年より844人(2.6%)減ったが、11年連続で3万人を超えた。
年齢別では、最多が50代の6363人(9.7%減)。続いて60代の5735人(0.4%増)、40代の4970人(2.5%減)、30代の4850 人、70代の3697人(5.4%減)、20代の3438人(3.9%増)、80歳以上の2361人(5.1%減)、19歳以下の611人(11.5% 増)の順だった。
職業別では、主婦や年金生活者など無職者が1万8279人(3.7%減)で最多。次いで被雇用者8997人(1.7%減)、自営業・家族従業者3206人(2.2%減)、学生・生徒972人と続いた。
5月14日 Yahoo!ニュース
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090514-00000039-jij-soci
2009年5月2日土曜日
東京都人口
都人口:1294万2366人 前月比3万3510人増--4月1日現在 /東京
都は27日、4月1日現在の都の人口の推計値を公表した。それによると、人口総数は1294万2366人で前月より3万3510人(0・26%)増加した。男女別では男643万9429人、女650万2937人。
05年10月1日現在の国勢調査人口を基準値とし、毎月の住民基本台帳などの増減数を加えて推計した数字。区部が877万2826人、市部が408万3610人、郡部が5万8540人、島部が2万7390人。
前月比、前年同月比ともに人口増の最も多かったのは江東区。都は同区の人口増加について、「マンションの建設ラッシュが背景にある」とみている。【鮎川耕史】
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◇人口増の多い区市町村ベスト5(前年同月比)
(1)江東区 9987人
(2)足立区 7144人
(3)練馬区 5187人
(4)大田区 5185人
(5)世田谷区 4954人
毎日新聞 2009年4月28日 地方版
殺人未遂:暴力を相談後、妻子が男性殺害
殺人未遂:暴力を相談後、妻子が男性殺害 容疑で逮捕--広島県警
30日午前6時15分ごろ、広島県竹原市の自営業の男性(57)方から「首を絞めて夫を殺した」と女の声で警察に通報があった。駆けつけた警察官 が、首にひもを巻かれぐったりしている男性を1階居間で発見。約1時間後に死亡が確認された。県警竹原署の調べでは、電話したのは妻(40)で、1階には 当時、高専生の長男(18)、私立高1年の長女(15)もいた。同署は、妻に暴力を振るう男性に耐えかね男性を殺害しようとしたとして、3人を殺人未遂容 疑で逮捕した。解剖の結果では男性の死因を特定できず、殺人容疑の適用は見合わせた。
容疑は、3人は30日午前6時ごろ、1階居間で、男性が妻に暴力を振るい始めたため、共謀して首にひもを巻き付け絞め殺そうとしたとしている。いずれも容疑を認め、長女は「家族みんなが殺されると思った」と話しているという。
調べでは、男性は6人家族。残りの小学生と中学生の男児は2階で寝ていたという。
妻が17日、同署に「夫に殴られた。以前も殴られたことがある」などと相談。自宅を訪れた警官が被害届を出すように勧めたが妻は出さず、警官は男性に注意したという。【牧正、寺岡俊、星大樹、黒岩揺光】
◇原田貢・竹原署次長の話
被害申告が出されず、外傷もなかったので、(夫を)逮捕できなかった。殴ってはいけないと夫に警告した。措置としては適正と考える。
毎日新聞 2009年5月1日 東京朝刊