A review of thousands of patient records has turned up a previously unknown risk associated with a popular weight loss operation — suicide.

In bariatric surgery, the stomach is made smaller so as to speed weight loss. The risk of dying from bariatric surgery is about 1 ipercent, most studies show, and complications strike up to 40 percent of patients. In addition to being overweight, these patients often have health problems like diabetes and heart disease, so it’s no surprise they also have higher death rates from natural causes.

But a review of nearly 17,000 weight-loss surgeries performed in Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2004 has yielded a surprising finding. Of the 440 deaths in the group, 16 were due to suicide or drug overdose, according to the University of Pittsburgh researchers who reviewed the data. Based on the suicide rate in the general population, no more than three suicides should have occurred in the group, the study authors say. More troubling is the fact that another 14 of the drug overdoses that were reported likely include some suicides, suggesting that the real suicide rate was even higher. “There is a substantial excess of suicide deaths, even excluding those listed only as drug overdose,'’ the researchers noted.

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