Breast Implants and Suicide

Posted on August 7, 2007 in Personality Disorders Suicide

Seems that the rush to change one’s appearance doesn’t fix the underlying problem:

Women who receive implants for breast enhancement are
three times more likely to commit suicide, according to a new report that offered a sobering view of an increasingly popular surgery.

Deaths related to mental disorders, including alcohol or drug dependence, also were three times higher among women who had the cosmetic procedure, researchers said.

The report in the August issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery was the most recent to detect a higher suicide rate among women who had their breasts enlarged, providing a gloomy counterpoint to other studies that showed women felt better about themselves after getting implants.

While the study did not look at the reasons behind the suicides, senior author Joseph McLaughlin, a professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said he believed that many of the women had psychological problems before getting breast implants and that their condition did not improve afterward.

Previous studies have shown that up to 15 percent of plastic surgery patients have body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological condition marked by severe distress over minor physical imperfections.

People with the disorder have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts and rarely improve after plastic surgery.

Mania, it seems to me, often grabs for a material solution to a psychiatric problem and when it is disappointed, destroys itself.

I wonder if the same thing happens for customers of penis-enlargement techniques?

[tags]breast implants, suicide, bipolar disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, plastic surgery, depression, mental illness[/tags]