Breast implants triple suicide risk

New York: Women who undergo cosmetic breast implant surgery are three times more likely to commit suicide than those who do not, finds a new study.


This surgery is frequently sought by women who are unhappy with the size of their breasts and past studies have also shown higher suicide rates among those with cosmetic breast implants.


In a new study, researchers of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Tennessee did a detailed follow up of an earlier study of 3,527 women in Sweden who had had cosmetic breast implant surgery between 1965 and 1993.


It found that women with cosmetic breast implants are faced with a three-fold risk of committing suicide compared to women who have not, reported health portal Medical News Today.


Using data from death certificates and Swedish national health care records, the researchers compared the number and causes of deaths among the cosmetic breast implant cohort with the number among the same age group in the general female Swedish population.


The risk was nearly seven times higher for women who received their breast implants when they were aged 45 or older, according to the findings of the study published in the August issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery.

"Such findings warrant increased screening, counselling and perhaps post-implant monitoring of women seeking cosmetic breast implants," said Loren Lipworth, an epidemiologist with the Tennessee school who led the research.


The increased suicide risk was not apparent until 10 years after implantation surgery. After 10 years, however, suicide risk rose with time since surgery.


Source: IANS