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No Link Found Between Skin Disorders, Suicide Risk

Psychosomatics; ePub 2017 Aug 4; Prabhakar, et al

There is no evidence of increased risk of death by suicide in individuals with major skin disorders in the US general population, according to a recent study. Researchers conducted a retrospective case-control study to investigate the risk of suicide death in patients receiving care for dermatologic conditions. This study involved 8 US health systems and included a total of 2,674 individuals who died by suicide (cases) matched with 267,400 general population control individuals. They found that after adjusting for age, sex, and any mental health or substance use condition, no association was found between death by suicide and any skin condition, including conditions where clinicians are generally concerned about the risk such as acne, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis.

Citation:

Prabhakar D, Peterson EL, Hu Y, et al. Dermatologic conditions and risk of suicide: A case-control study. [Published online ahead of print August 4, 2017]. Psychosomatics. doi:10.1016/j.psym.2017.08.001.