Diseases of the pancreas and suicide mortality: A nationwide nested case-control study among patients with mental health disorders in Taiwan

Hong Ming Chen, Vincent Chin Hung Chen, Tsu Nai Wang, Mong Liang Lu, Yin Cheng Huang, Michael E. Dewey, Johnny Kuang Wu Lee, Ching Piao Tsai*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective Diseases of the pancreas, especially pancreatitis, have been implicated as possible risk factors for psychiatric illnesses, such as depression and anxiety disorder. This nested case-control study aimed to investigate the association between diseases of the pancreas and completed suicide in a psychiatric population-based study. Methods The case group comprised 6568 completed suicides (ICD-9: E950-E959, E980-989) patients from the national mortality database between January 1, 2002 and December 1, 2010. These cases were compared with 6568 gender-, age-, residence-, and insurance premium-matched controls. Both suicide and non-suicide study patients were drawn from a group with previous psychiatric diagnoses. The risk of suicide among patients with diseases of the pancreas was analyzed using a conditional logistic regression model that controlled for alcohol-related disorder, drug dependence, schizophrenia, depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, Charlson comorbidity score, and outpatient visits. Results Disease of the pancreas was an independent risk factor for psychiatric patients who had completed suicide when adjusted for clinical and other comorbid factors. Among these covariates, alcohol-related disorders partially mediate the suicide risk among patients with disease of the pancreas, and mental disorders may not mediate this suicide risk. Conclusions Diseases of the pancreas were associated with increased risk of completed suicide after controlling for potential confounding factors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)45-50
Number of pages6
JournalGeneral Hospital Psychiatry
Volume50
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

  • Diseases of the pancreas
  • Mental disorders
  • Pancreatitis
  • Suicide

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