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Citation
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Laugesen K, Farkas DK, Vestergaard M, Jørgensen JOL, Petersen I, Sørensen HT. World Psychiatry 2021; 20(1): 142-143. |
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Abstract
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Suicide is an important public health problem, with nearly 800,000 people dying worldwide every year. The World Health Organization has declared suicide prevention an international priority1. Glucocorticoid treatment is prevalent and beneficial for many chronic diseases2, but also associated with severe psychiatric adverse effects3.
Evidence on an association between glucocorticoid treatment and suicide is sparse4, 5. A study conducted in patients registered at UK general practices4 pooled suicides and suicide attempts, although acknowledging that they represent two different phenomena that may or not be related. Persons treated with oral glucocorticoids were 7‐fold more likely to attempt or die from suicide shortly after initiation of treatment, compared to persons with the same underlying conditions who did not receive these medications. A Canadian case‐control study5, focusing on people aged 66 years or more, found an unadjusted odds ratio of 1.33 (95% CI: 0.88‐2.00) for the association of glucocorticoid use and suicide. There is a need to confirm the association between glucocorticoid use and suicide in a large sample representative of the general population, and to evaluate whether the association depends on glucocorticoid administration form, time since initiation of glucocorticoid treatment, and underlying medical conditions and comorbidities.
We examined the association between glucocorticoid use and suicide in a registry‐based population‐based case‐control study in Denmark ...
Language: en |