Hawkins M, Schaffer A, Sinyor M, Nishikawa Y, Herrmann N, Lanctôt KL, Styra R, Pompili M, Huffman J. Gen. Hosp. Psychiatry 2018; 52: 41-47.
Affiliation
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: JHUFFMAN@mgh.harvard.edu.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to characterize self-poisoning deaths in people with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and compare to other suicide decedent groups.
METHODS: Suicide deaths by self-poisoning in people with CVD (n = 151) were compared to suicide deaths by other methods in people with CVD (n = 260) and suicide deaths by self-poisoning in people without CVD (n = 509). Sub-analysis of the CVD self-poisoning group compared people with depression and without depression. Toxicology reports were compared between intentional self-poisoning groups.
RESULTS: A higher proportion of suicide deaths were due to self-poisoning in the CVD group compared to the non-CVD group. People with CVD were less likely to have any identified stressor (excluding medical stressor) prior to dying from self-poisoning compared to those without CVD. Female sex, past suicide attempts, living circumstances, and comorbid substance abuse were each significantly associated with self-poisoning as the method of suicide in people with CVD. Opioid, any antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) were commonly identified as lethal in people with CVD. Compared to people in the CVD self-poisoning without depression group, people in the CVD self-poisoning with depression group were more likely to have lethal levels of TCAs.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings characterize suicide deaths in people with CVD, and identified notable differences based on method of death and presence of depression.