:-)
Posted on 12/14/2004 9:49:04 AM PST by Pharmboy
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to evidence that women with cosmetic breast implants have a higher rate of suicide than other women and shows, for the first time, that they may be more likely to have a history of psychiatric illness as well.
Whether the elevated rate of psychiatric conditions explains the higher suicide risk is not clear from the findings. However, the study does give weight to the belief that it's not the cosmetic procedure itself that is behind patients' suicides, according to Dr. Joseph K. McLaughlin, president of the International Epidemiology Institute, a Rockville, Maryland-based research center founded by scientists from the National Cancer Institute.
"There is no evidence that breast implants, per se, increase the risk of suicide," he told Reuters Health.
Mounting evidence indicates that, for whatever reason, there is a "small subset" of breast-implant patients who are at risk of suicide, according to McLaughlin. His team's study adds to past research that has consistently found a two- to three-times higher risk of suicide among women with cosmetic breast implants compared with the general population.
The "new twist" from this study, McLaughlin said, is the additional finding on psychiatric hospital admissions. Compared with women who underwent either breast reduction or other cosmetic procedures, those who received breast implants were 70 percent more likely to have a history of admissions for psychiatric illness.
The findings are published in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study included nearly 2,800 Danish women who underwent cosmetic breast-implant surgery between 1973 and 1995, as well as more than 7,000 women who had breast reduction and 1,700-plus women who had other types of cosmetic surgery within the same time period.
The researchers used national records to gather information on the women's death rates and causes of death through 1999, and on their history of hospitalization for psychiatric illness prior to having cosmetic surgery.
Overall, McLaughlin and his colleagues found, 14 women with breast implants committed suicide. While that number is small, it makes for a suicide rate that's three-times higher than the norm, according to the researchers.
In addition, eight percent of the women with breast implants had had a psychiatric hospital admission -- a "hard" measure, McLaughlin noted, that indicates mental illness and not problems such as poor body image. That rate of hospital admission compares with a roughly five-percent rate in each of the two comparison groups.
The researchers also found that women who underwent breast reduction had a higher-than-expected rate of suicide -- a finding McLaughlin called "surprising."
However, he pointed out that this increased risk was "barely significant" in statistical terms, and therefore could be a chance finding.
"It certainly needs further evaluation," McLaughlin said.
On the other hand, he added, the suicide risk among women with breast implants seems to be a solid finding. McLaughlin said that with all the research that has looked into the possible links between breast implants and serious illness, including autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, the only risk that has consistently emerged is the risk of suicide.
"It's unexplained for now," he said.
Still, given the new findings on psychiatric illness, McLaughlin said it may be a good idea for plastic surgeons to "take a closer look" at breast-implant candidates and possibly refer those with signs of a psychiatric problem for evaluation.
The study was funded by the Danish Cancer Society and the International Epidemiology Institute, which received support from the Dow Corning Corporation, once the world's largest maker of silicone gel breast implants. The company no longer makes the implants, having been hit in the 1990s with thousands of lawsuits claiming that the devices caused health problems.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December 13/27, 2004.
Would you call ramming a chunk of steel through your body parts to be self mutilation?
How about pierced ears?
I think this whole story being from Reuters is a fraud.
Is it true that Tufts Univ. did a study about breast size and IQ or is that na urban myth?
I would run from any woman who had a breast implant.
No way those are real but I'm not complaining. That said, I have never understood why a woman would have foreign objects permanently installed in her body just to get more stares from men.
"I would run from any woman who had a breast implant."
So would I. If my wife caught me drooling over some fun-bags, I'd be in for a whuppin.
Don't forget pop stars!
There's a difference?
Her fakies look ridiculous. When she reaches retirement age she can join the circus as a freak act because her body will change but her fake boobs won't...
They must be better at it these days. The only experience I've had with the darn things was a bad one -- like I was feeling up a brick wall. My hand retracted automatically. ....never to return ;)
I'd agree with that..
I agree. That's why my all natural 36-C wife wears a Bullet Bra. If a woman wants people to notice her t!ts, then just make what Gad gave 'em more prominent instead of putting them in most of today's strap down bras.
>>Now... that's a quarter million breast augmentations in 2002 alone. You still think that a sizeable proportion of them are prostitutes and porn stars?<<
Presuming the 32% growth rate does not represent a sudden acceleration, almost 1 in 3 people who received breast implants did so just in that year. (No, that's not bad mathematical reasoning... the numbers just happen to work out that way.) So let's say there are 750,000 women walking around with fake breasts.
Now, we know the suicide rate for women is normally 1 in 30,000. That means that the normal number of suicides for a population the size of the population with fake breasts is only 25 in a given year. It doesn't take a whole lot of dead hos to cause a large percentage variation in a population that small: If one fake-breasted hooker in each state commits suicide in a year, that alone would make the suicide rate for women with fake breasts three times normal.
I think you're right in your opinion that breast augmentation occurs in a much broader group than those working in "sex industries" alone. Whether or not these sex workers could disproportionately affect the "crude rate" needs to be further investigated.
However, I think something is wrong with the posted study.
I found on the net that the "crude rate" of suicide in the US is about 12 people per 100,000. I guess this includes everybody from infants to seniors.
The article posted at the top of this thread states that the "study included nearly 2,800 Danish women who underwent cosmetic breast-implant surgery...as well as more than 7,000 women who had breast reduction and 1,700-plus women who had other types of cosmetic surgery..."
"...Overall, McLaughlin and his colleagues found, 14 women with breast implants committed suicide...."
So, they are saying that of the 2800 Danish women who had breast implants, 14 of them committed suicide. This extrapolates to a rate of 500 (!) suicides per 100,000. This is 6000X the "crude rate" of the United States!
I think something is rotten in Denmark....
At any rate, this incredibly high rate needs to be investigated before the "study" is accepted as representative of general trends.
The rest of them were fun to hang out with, but that's about all. Definetely not the kind of girl you bring home to Mom.
On the flip side, I've known a number of women that have got breast reduction surgery. That's a good thing. Fixes all kinds of back problems and other health issues.
Actually, tbey do change with time. Or at least properly shaped and installed ones do. They respond to gravity over time - not at the same rate or in the same way as the natural ones, but they do respond to gravity - underpinnings you know.
That 8.7 million probably includes a few million face lifts and less than a million breast implants.
:-)
I'm a woman and I don't understand for the life of me why anyone would want breast enlargement unless they just went through a mascetomy or something disfiguring. Hellooooo, haven't you noticed every man now has an Asian fetish... and are Asian women known for their endownment? Thin & perky is in, and that's that.
I had a pierced ear once. Taught me not to fly fish on windy days, it did.
>>>>>>(1) A large percentage of augmented women are "exotic dancers", prostitutes and porn actresses<<<<<<
>>>>Don't forget pop stars!<<<<
>>There's a difference?<<
The difference between a pop star and a porn actress?
Acting.
I hadn't looked at the suicide rates posted in the article, to be honest. I saw Wideawake's comment implying that primarily prostitutes, dancers, and porn stars got implants, and it just struck me as patently ridiculous. When I asked Wideawake for a hard source for that assumption, the answer was "take a look around," which actually means, "Uhhh, I don't have any factual basis for my opinion."
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