Report links breast implants to higher suicide rate

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

A report was published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, August issue, which showed this troubling trend that women with plastic surgery tend to commit suicide more and counteracts the studies and beliefs that Plastic surgery helps boosts a woman’s self confidence and image.

Study of 3,527 Swedish women who had breast implants between the years 1965 and 1993 was analyzed. Those with breast reconstruction surgery were not included in this study. The researchers tracked these women after their implant surgeries and they found the risk of suicide increased over time. After the initial 10 years there were no increased risk, but between 10 and 19 years after surgery, the suicide risk was 4.5 times higher and six times higher after 20 years of surgery.

Joseph McLaughlin, a professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the senior author for this study, believes the reason for the high suicide rate might lie with women who had psychological problems before they had implants and that their condition did not improve very much afterwards.

Some earlier studies have shown that up to 15 percent of plastic surgery patients have body dysmorphic disorder, which is a psychological condition marked by severe distress over minor physical imperfections. People with such disorder have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts and breast implants surgery doesn’t help much after, either the disorder remains the same or gets worse.

The product itself is a high risk; though the Food and Drug Administration ended a 14 year ban on Silicone filled implants after they found little evidence the implants were unsafe.

Breast augmentation is the popular surgery in the US, followed by liposuction and eyelid surgery. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 315, 516 breast enlargements were done up by 13 percent from 2005.

This study was done only in Sweden, so the results may or may not be the same in other countries, but a similar study can be done in other countries. The manufacturers will not do this, hopefully an independent study like this will help find the results whether the implants surgery is safe or unsafe, so women can make a better choice. Also, the study covers only between 1965 and 1993, so more studies should be done to see how it has affected now compared to before, where the scrutiny on women was more and felt threatened during that time.

Will this trend be the same with modern plastic surgeries?