Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:31:43 EDT
In the bosom of death (P.J Brent is in this article.)
Suicide risk is high among breast implant recipients, Canadian study says
Allison Hanes, National Post
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
In 2000, P.J. Brent was dismissed as an anecdotal anomaly when she testified before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the chronic health problems she suffered from her breast implants.
The 49-year-old mother of seven became a sad statistic two months later when she leapt to her death from a five-storey parking garage in Atlanta, Ga.
Just how significant a statistic became apparent when a new Canadian study published in the latest edition of an American medical journal reported a 73% higher rate of suicide among women with breast implants than the general population.
Although the number of suicides was just a handful from among tens of thousands of subjects, the Canadian research echoes the results of half a dozen recent studies from the United States and Scandinavia. It has experts speculating on the psychological, sociological and physiological explanations for the alarming trend.
The news has reignited a debate about the safety of implants in the midst of a Health Canada review of its restrictions on silicone implants, which were pulled from general use in 1992 amid safety concerns.
Published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, the Canadian study compared mortality rates for 24,558 women in Ontario and Quebec who received breast implants between 1974 and 1989, as well as 15,893 women who had other types of plastic surgery, with those in the general population.
The average age of the subjects was 32, and all the implants were done for cosmetic reasons, as opposed to post-mastectomy reconstruction.
The good news, said Jacques Brisson, a Universite Laval breast cancer specialist and one of the authors of the study, is that women with implants had a 26% lower mortality rate overall. There was also a reduced incidence of breast cancer, he said, likely due to the women having less breast tissue.
The bad news is the elevated suicide risk.
Women with implants were 73% more likely to take their own lives than the general population, while women who underwent liposuction, facelifts or tummy tucks faced a 55% higher risk.
Dr. Brisson pointed out the total number of suicides was quite low -- only 58 women with implants killed themselves, versus 33 who had other types of cosmetic surgery. "It is still a small number, so the risk is still small."
But the results have prompted questions about whether some women who opt for breast augmentation may be predisposed to suicide because of underlying emotional problems, or whether the implants themselves are to blame.
Richard Warren, a member of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons and a clinical professor of plastic surgery at the University of British Columbia, said patients seeking nose surgery traditionally have been considered most at risk to suffer mental distress.
"The thing that's different about breast surgery is that it tends to be a slightly younger person [undergoing] it," Dr. Warren said. "There are issues, such as are there other people involved in that person's life who may or may not want them to do this? Are they thinking that having changed a secondary sexual characteristic that their relationships with men will change?"
