Citation

Löfman S, Rasanen P, Hakko H, Mainio A. Spine 2011; 36(7): 541-548.

Affiliation

Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Finland Department of Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181f2f08a

PMID

21217427

Abstract

Study Design. A population-based study of suicides and linkage with national hospital discharge registers.Objective. To investigate the prevalence of hospital-treated musculoskeletal diseases, particularly back pain, among suicide victims, to compare suicide characteristics between victims with and without musculoskeletal diseases, to analyse co-morbidity between musculoskeletal diseases and psychiatric disorders, and to evaluate whether specific drugs have a role in suicides by poisoning.Summary of background data. Depression, other psychiatric disorders and suicidal behavior are common comorbid conditions in patients with diseases of the musculoskeletal system.Methods. The data consisted of 2,310 suicides (1,885 males, 425 females) committed in the province of Oulu in Northern Finland during 1988-2007. The information on hospital-treated musculoskeletal diseases was extracted from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Registers. The suicide victims with a diagnosis of back pain including sciatica (BP, n = 133) and victims with musculoskeletal diseases other than back pain (MSD, n = 357) were compared to those of having no history of musculoskeletal diseases (reference group, n = 1,820). The data on suicides were based on death-certificates based from official medico-legal investigations.Results. A total of 490 (21.3%) of suicide victims had a history of hospital-treated musculoskeletal diseases. The age death of the victims with BP was about 11 years higher compared to the reference group. After adjusting for age, non-violent suicide methods and use of analgesics in poisoning suicides in both genders, and hospital-treated depression/ substance-related disorders in males were also more common in the BP and MSD groups. Females with BP had been more often under the influence of alcohol when committing suicide compared the other groups.Conclusions. Victims with a history of hospital-treated musculoskeletal diseases committed suicide at older age. However, the older person is, the more chance there is to have a treatment for some musculoskeletal diseases at some point of life. Use of analgesics as a potential suicide method should be kept in mind when treating patients with musculoskeletal system diseases.

Language: en