Items Tagged With suicide

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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I always have a weird reaction to hearing about a celebrity who is struggling with mental illness. I feel pity and empathy, but I also feel something akin to satisfaction. As I said, it's weird, at least on the surface.

The satisfaction is partly due, I think, to the knowledge that I'm not alone in my fight with depression. Not that I thought I was, but since we all feel that we "know" celebrities to some extent through media coverage, it's more like finding out a friend or acquaintance is dealing with it rather than just seeing impersonal statistics of how many people have depression or another mental illness.

When I read about actor Owen Wilson's apparent suicide attempt over the weekend, my reaction quickly became pity for the poor guy, unmitigated by any hint of satisfaction. Because of his popularity, I assume, as well as the fact that he had seemed to be very stable, the media has jumped all over the story like nothing I've seen in a long time.

For many older adults, the "golden years" are indeed golden. My parents, who are both over the age of 65, are enjoying their retirement here in Northern California. My father is supervising the building of their new house and my mother runs a website she created for senior women. They go to baseball games and symphonies, among other activities, and spend a lot of time taking their grandchildren to museums of all kinds. I think they probably would be a good commercial for vitamins marketed to seniors.

Unfortunately, for some seniors, the golden years are more like leaden, especially if they're living with depression. Not only can depression suck all the enjoyment out of life, as it can at any age, but depression can also be dangerous to an older adult's physical health.

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Last week, leading psychiatric researchers linked a 2004 increase in the suicide rate for children and adolescents to a warning by the Food and Drug Administration about the use of antidepressants in minors. The F.D.A. warning, the researchers suggested, might have resulted in severely depressed teenagers going without needed treatment.

But the data in the study, which was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry and received widespread publicity, do not support that explanation, outside experts say.

While suicide rates for Americans ages 19 and under rose 14 percent in 2004, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants in that group was basically unchanged and did not drop substantially, according to data from the study. Prescription rates for minors did fall sharply a year later, but the suicide rates for 2005 are not yet available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a statistically significant association between suicide rates and prescription rates provided in the paper” for the years after the F.D.A. warnings, said Thomas R. Ten Have, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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While I am not surprised (but quite saddened) by the media hounding received by Owen Wilson, his family and associated executives in the industry, what does continue to surprise (and sadden) me is the continuing lack of awareness and reporting surrounding mental illness as well as suicide.

Considering that Mr. Wilson requested, "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," it is clear that even he perceives his situation as serious. His request has fallen on deaf ears. Newscasters are camped out at Cedars-Sinai.

If indeed Owen Wilson suffers from depression and if he indeed did try to attempt suicide (as up to this point no statements have been released to confirm or deny), requesting the media to grant him the courtesy to heal and receive treatment in private should ethically be honored. Ethics do not sell air time or newspapers, however.