Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:49:20 EDT
Cosmetic Surgery Boom Linked To Suicides
Thursday, 19th October 2006, 07:47
The boom in cosmetic surgery may be sparking an alarming increase in suicides, scientists fear.
The quest for the body beautiful has gone mainstream as record numbers of people turn to the knife in a bid to become more attractive, a report reveals.
But a botched operation could be the least of their worries as alarming links are discovered between the nip and tuck generation and self-harm.
Researchers found women who have received breast implants are up to three times as likely to kill themselves as those who have not.
One theory even suggests leaks from implants could be altering women's brain chemistry - making them more vulnerable to suicide.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimates US citizens underwent at least 10.2 million cosmetic surgery procedures in 2005.
Last year 291,000 American women had breast implants, 324,000 Americans had fat vacuumed out of their bodies and 231,000 had fat, skin and muscle cut from around their eyes.
Including less common operations such as buttock lifts, pectoral implants and vaginal rejuvenations, as well as "minimally invasive" procedures such as Botox injections and more than one in 300 Americans have gone under the knife.
But people prepared to have surgery to achieve a better-looking body or face are more likely than the average person to be suffering from psychiatric problems, reports New Scientist.
"We have to believe cosmetic surgery will improve our self-esteem and body image and make us feel better about ourselves. If not, we're wasting an awful lot of time, effort and money," says Dr David Sarwer of the Centre for Human Appearance and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Five recent studies, including a US study of more than 13,000 women who received breast implants and another from Canada of 24,000 set out to investigate the alleged link between silicone breast implants and cancers, auto-immune diseases and other disorders.
Although they failed to confirm any such connection another striking link did emerge - women who have received breast implants are two to three times as likely to kill themselves as those who have not.
"The only consistent finding from all the studies has been the unexpected one of suicide," says Dr Joseph McLaughlin, director of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Maryland, who ran some of the studies.
The suicide risk revealed by these studies could turn out to be an underestimate, as deaths due to suicides are frequently attributed to other causes.
The largest mortality study, conducted in Canada, found the suicide risk was almost doubled for the 25,000 womenwho received breast implants and 16,000 women who underwent other cosmetic procedures.
A Danish study also found a moderate increase in suicide risk in breast reduction patients. There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest it's not just women who are at risk.
According to Leroy Young, a plastic surgeon in private practice in St Louis, Missouri, the patients most prone to violence against themselves, and their surgeons, are young, narcissistic males who have had nose or penis surgery.
In one study Dr Sarwer found 18 per cent of a sample of patients having cosmetic surgery were taking drugs to treat a psychiatric condition, typically an anti-depressant. Only five per cent of patients undergoing non-cosmetic plastic surgery were taking similar drugs.
Trying to get at the reasons behind this increased risk of suicide is difficult. One possibility – admittedly very remote, but not yet ruled out – is that leaks from implants can alter women's brain chemistry, triggering suicide in some.
Another idea is women with breast implants commit suicide more often because they are also more likely to use drugs or alcohol.
A more plausible explanation is women who receive implants have personality traits or psychiatric disorders that go undetected by surgeons or are ignored by them, and that these put the women at risk of suicide.
Another condition common among people having cosmetic surgery is body dysmorphic disorder or "imagined ugliness."
BDD patients obsess about barely noticeable or non-existent flaws in their physical appearance, and the condition now turns out to affect far more people than previously suspected. A study by Dr Sarwer showed 2.5 per cent of female American college students have BDD.
"People seemed puzzled by suicide in women with breast implants - but I would not be surprised if BDD was behind it," says Dr Phillips.
A preliminary study by her team found someone with BDD is 45 times as likely as normal to commit suicide - more than twice the rate of people with major depression and three times that of people with bipolar disorder.
To find out whether BDD or some other psychiatric disorder is behind the suicides and whether cosmetic surgery alters the risks would require thousands of women to undergo extensive personality testing before and after surgery - something psychologists and epidemiologists doubt will be done.
"It's a field of artistic endeavour and technique - not research," says Dr McLaughlin. Cosmetic surgery patients tend to be reluctant to volunteer for trials preferring to remain anonymous.
Despite the obvious dangers more than 290,000 women in the US had breast implants in 2005 - up 37 per cent from 2000.
"I tell these women about all these complications and more, and they still want to do it. They say they want to look better in clothes and feel more confident and less self-conscious. It's a very powerful motivator," says Dr Young.
The desire to perfect your body, even at such high potential cost, is a consequence of living in image-conscious America, says Dr Sarwer.
According to one survey over 56 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men are dissatisfied with their appearance
