Citation

Pompili M, Girardi P, Ruberto A, Tatarelli R. Nord. J. Psychiatry 2005; 59(5): 319-324.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Sant’ Andrea Hospital, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy and McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/08039480500320025

PMID

16757458

Abstract

Suicide is the major cause of death among patients with borderline personality disorder; however, the literature on completed suicides in such disorder is inconclusive, as suicide rates vary greatly among cohorts of patients. We searched MedLine, Excerpta Medica and PsycLit from 1980 to 2005 to identify papers dealing with suicide in borderline personality disorder. We also searched the World Health Statistics Annual to ascertain the suicide rate in the age groups for specific years and country. We selected eight studies comprising 1179 patients with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Of these patients, 94 committed suicide. Results obtained for each study were processed together to calculate the mean figure for each year of suicides for 100,000 individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder. Our meta-analysis shows that suicide among patients with borderline personality disorder is more frequent when compared with the general population. All study analyses reported that patients with borderline personality disorder committed suicide more often than their counterparts in the general population. Suicide seems more alarming in the first phases of follow-up than during chronic phases of illness.

Language: en