Breast implants again linked to suicide risk
Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:45 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to evidence that while women with breast implants are not at greater risk of breast cancer, they do seem to have an elevated rate of suicide.
The reason for the suicide risk is unclear, but several studies have now come to similar conclusions. Some researchers believe the link is explained by higher rates of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem among women who undergo breast augmentation.
Supporting that theory, one recent study found that women who received cosmetic breast implants were more likely to have a history of psychiatric hospitalization than those who underwent other types of plastic surgery.
Based on such findings, some experts have recommended that women be screened for past and present psychiatric disorders before they receive breast implants.
The current study, published in the journal Epidemiology, included 12,144 U.S. women who'd received breast implants between 1960 and 1988, and 3,614 women who'd undergone other types of cosmetic surgery during the same period.
Researchers compared the two groups' rates of death from various causes over an average of 20 years; the rates in each group were also compared with statistics for women in the general population.
Overall, the study found, women who'd received implants had a lower risk of death from most causes when compared with the general population.
That included a lower risk of dying from breast cancer, a disease that has been a concern among breast implant recipients. Though research has failed to show that the implants contribute to breast cancer development, there is evidence that implants can interfere with mammography screening for breast tumors.
In this study, however, women with implants were only half as likely as those in the general population to die of breast cancer, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Louise A. Brinton of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
Women who'd received implants did, however, have a higher-than-average risk of suicide. And they were more than twice as likely as women who'd had other cosmetic procedures to take their own lives.
Between the two surgery groups, implant recipients were also more likely to die of respiratory cancer or brain cancer. However, few women in either group died of a brain tumor, and it's not clear that there's a cause-and-effect relationship between breast implants and either form of cancer, according to Brinton and her colleagues.
The elevated suicide risk, however, "remains of concern," the researchers conclude.
In an unexpected finding, they note, women with implants were also more likely than those who'd had other cosmetic procedures to die in a car accident. Coupled with the suicide findings, Brinton and her colleagues write, this suggests that some of those traffic deaths were not accidental.
SOURCE: Epidemiology, March 2006.
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Just so you know, I did a post based on this exact article today too. I think you're new to the site, right? Well here's my advice: it's fine to post an article, but you should put some of your own input. Just copy & pasting the article doesn't usually get too much of a response....we could have all seen that ourselves on another site. Just a heads up.
I have breast implants myself, and I was a little surprised by this article. My reason for getting breast implants was to balance out my body a little bit. I was an A cup and I just went to a big B. My reasoning had nothing to do with bad self image or anything like that, I just always wanted bigger breasts and I have never regreted it. However, if your reason for getting implants is because you have a poor body image and don't like the way you look, then I can see how that could be related to suicide. I don't think that the implants have anything to do with it, just the fact that you're depressed and unhappy about the way you look. I wish that more people would focus on what's inside instead of what's on the outside.
But why did you want the implants? It had to do with body image. I mean, you don't just want silicone on your chest for no reason.
Girls are often influenced in what they see on TV or they have a poor self- image of themselves. This article should somewhat influence girl's opinion whether they should get implants because it is risky business. Girls are beautiful the way they are and should think twice about implants because it could be the road to complications of health.