Letters to the Editor
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I'm guessing this isn't cause-and-effect
My guess is that the set of issues that might get a woman to decide to have surgery might overlap the set of issues that might get a woman to commit suicide.
And just a hunch, but I doubt many women have had the surgery and only afterwards started contemplating the other action.
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cause or effect?
The interesting question for me is this:
Does getting the boob job somehow mak one more prone to suicide? (seems unlikely)
Or, are women who get boob jobs for non-medical reasons more suicidal to begin with? (Methinks.) These women may falsely assume "If I had bigger boobs, everything else in my lfe would be better." Then they have bigger boobs and the same old life, but maybe more harassment, less self-esteem and a greater likelihood of depression.
If so, should women seeking boob jobs get some kind of psych screening/counseling before going under the knife? I know it sounds like infantilization, but women seeking abortions must be counseled, and the suicide link seems much stronger with boob jobs than the mythical post-abortion syndrome.
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I dunno...
I'm not sure about this.
First, "80 percent of women with perfectly healthy bodies who subject themselves to the unnecessary medical risks of breast implants..."
80%? That can't be right. Are we talking about a particular demographic (18-30, say)?
Also, Sweden? Suicide? Doesn't Sweden have one of the highest suicide rates anyway?
Lastly, from the "correlation is not causality" department, I can imagine that women with LSE might seek breast enhancement as a way to address that LSE, then find it really doesn't help, leading to a deeper funk, leading to...
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Another Media Crap Story
Sigh. Correlation, causation, does the media never learn, and do the benighted academics never learn what will be done with their work?
Some perspective: 42 more women died (from ALL causes) than would be expected (175 instead of 133.4), a 31% increase, on a somewhat small sample size. As group, before and after surgery, there was a heavier use of tobacco and alcohol (surprise surpise, party girls are more likely to get boob jobs). By the time you get to 10 and 20 years after surgery, the sample sizes are teeny tiny, and probably not terribly significant.
What this earth-shaking study has established is that women who: drink and smoke and are somewhat less psychologically "stable," are more likely (though still very unlikely overall) to commit suicide, are also more likely to get a boob job. That is really useful information to have, isn't it?
One should also point out that nothing in the study works in reverse: there is nothing in the study to suggest that the majority of women with boob jobs are in any way unstable or suicidal. And it most certainly does not establish that having implants affects your brain.
It is reminiscent of the recent pot study that found that an insignificant percentage of pot smokers are mentally unstable and likely to develop mental health issues down the road. Gee thanks.
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Not that I'm for or against implants
but I think it bears stating that the suicide rate for women in Sweden is almost double that of the US (8.1 per 100k vs 4.1 - as of 2001, the latest year for which data is available) according to the World Health Organization.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/
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Please take care when speculating about causality
There is a huge difference between causality (breast enhancement causes an increased risk of suicide) and correlation (breast enhancement and increased risk of suicide appear to go hand in hand).
This is the kind of sloppy analysis that does not help anyone understand the deeper issues.
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delayed effect
Seems noteworthy that there is a time delay between the surgery and suicide. Almost by definition, a woman who gets breast implants has unresolved body issues. It makes sense that they might also not be comfortable with growing old gracefully. If one wants to adhere to stereotypical notions of what constitutes female beauty (as implant-ees probably do) then women only grow less attractive with age. If they are hanging most of their self esteem on their physical appearance, then I can see how aging could lead to the kind of self-devaluing and depression that plays into the suicidal impulse.
Looking at the numbers from the abstract, can give some perspective. Of 3527 women in the study, 175 died instead of the expected number of 133 deaths: 4.9% of the sample, instead of 3.8%. Not that those 42 lives aren't a sad loss, but they are only 1.1% of the total sample.
This quote from the primary source supports the cause and effect points other commenters have noted:
"The excess of deaths from suicides, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, and other related causes suggests significant underlying psychiatric morbidity among these women."
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ANd what about men?
Is there a link between getting hair transplants or a rug, and suicide?
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Intuitive
It just seems intuitive that people who undergo plastic surgery to make themselves look better probably contain a higher proportion of people whose self esteem depends on being attractive to the opposite sex, and that as they get older their satisfaction with life is likely to diminish. Michael Jackson needs to be put on permanent suicide watch, I guess.
Although breast implant surgery is relatively common and relatively safe, it is still a huge decision to go under anesthetic, under the knife, and pay a large amount of money too, so women who have this surgery must have very high hopes, which won't always be fulfilled. The tits may look better, but the husband may still stray.
As I have several dental crowns, and more pending I would love to see a study on any correlation between dental work and suicide, and in particular as to the proximity of post dental suicides to receipt of the bill.
On a further personal note, as a connoisseur of the female form, it is usually very obvious when breasts have been enhanced (yes, Victoria Beckham) and the resulting cartoonish, hemispherical globes are not particularly appealing (I don't think). The mental effect of the surgery on others is like seeing all those members of congress wearing thick rugs on their heads without a grey hair in sight. It is magnificent, but you wouldn't want it in your family.