Some studies have found that women who have their breasts enlarged are more likely to commit suicide, but no one knows why exactly. Researchers in Denmark looked at whether women who had cosmetic breast implants were more likely than other women to commit suicide or have previous psychiatric problems.

What the researchers wanted to know: How often have women who have undergone cosmetic surgery been hospitalized for psychiatric disorders, and what is their suicide rate?

What they did: The researchers compared records on 2,788 women who received cosmetic breast implants, 7,071 women who had breast reductions, and 1,736 women who had cosmetic surgery other than breast implants. They linked the medical records to national data on mortality and psychiatric hospitalizations.

What they found: Women who'd had breast implants were more likely to have died than population death rates would predict, and they were more likely to commit suicide than the average Danish woman. Much of the increased mortality also came from smoking-related diseases such as emphysema. They were also more likely to have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital before their surgery. While half of the 14 women who had breast implants and killed themselves had been hospitalized for psychiatric disorders before the surgery, only a quarter of the women who had breast reduction surgery and killed themselves had been in a psychiatric hospital.

What the study means to you: This supports the hypothesis that breast implants don't drive women to commit suicide but that women who choose to have breast implants may be more likely than the average woman to have underlying psychiatric problems, the authors write.

Caveats: The researchers knew only about the psychiatric risk factors for suicide—they didn't look at other aspects of the women's lives—and only about psychiatric disorders that were bad enough to require hospitalization.

Find out more: Food and Drug Administration page on breast implants

Read the article: Jacobsen, P.H., et al. "Mortality and Suicide Among Danish Women With Cosmetic Breast Implants." Archives of Internal Medicine. Dec. 13/27, 2004, Vol. 164, pp. 2450-2455.

Abstract online: http://archinte.ama-assn.org