Breast implants linked to high rate of suicide

Women with breast implants have been warned of a new hazard linked with the cosmetic enhancement - suicide.

A study of 3500 women who had implants over a 28-year period found they were three times more likely to kill themselves than those who were content with what nature had given them.

Women who have cosmetic surgery are known to be prone to psychiatric problems, and the researchers say this link is likely to explain the high suicide rate rather than any effect of the implants themselves.

The study was conducted in Sweden among women aged 15 to 69 who had implants between 1965 and 1993. The researchers found 15 women committed suicide compared with the 5.2 expected.

The finding adds to the risks of implants which have been debated for more than a decade.

About 5000 women with soya oil implants were advised to have them removed in 1999 after some started to leak.

In 2000 hydrogel implants, given to over 4000 women, were withdrawn from the market.

The latest study, published in the British Medical Journal , found that in addition to the increased suicide risk women with implants were more likely to die of lung cancer because they smoked more.

Overall, implanted women had a 50 per cent increased risk of dying of any cause. This contrasts with a US study published in 2001 which found a decreased mortality in women with implants, although it, too, found an increased risk of suicide.

The authors of the new study conclude: "Given the well-documented link between psychiatric disorders and a desire for cosmetic surgery, the increased risk for death from suicide may reflect a greater prevalence of psychopathology rather than a causal association between implant surgery and suicide."


- INDEPENDENT