A new cohort study from Korea has found an increased risk of suicide among patients with COPD, particularly if those patients are heavy smokers with depression and anxiety.
The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, analyzed data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service. Participants were followed until either their death by suicide, their censoring date (the date they were removed from the study for other reasons) or Dec. 31, 2021, whichever came first.
During a median follow-up of 11.3 years, researchers found that individuals with COPD had an increased risk of death by suicide compared to those without. When classified by the presence or absence of potential risk factors and COPD, the risk of suicide was the highest among those with COPD who were also current smokers and had depression and/or anxiety.
Researchers found that during that 11-year period, the incidence of death by suicide was 0.8 per 1,000 person years (the number of incidents per 1,000 people within a year) in individuals with COPD, which was about three times higher than that in the controls (0.27 per 1,000 person years). They also found that, even when adjusting for potential confounders, the risk of suicide was 1.2 times higher in the COPD population than in the control groups. And even though the risk was highest among smokers, it remained significant among never-smokers in the group.
“COPD increased the risk of death by suicide,” the researchers concluded. “This risk was particularly pronounced when current heavy smoking habits, depression, and anxiety coexisted with COPD.”
