Hepatitis & HIV patients with infection at higher risk of suicide

People diagnosed with Hepatitis and HIV or AIDS have high chances of committing suicide after being hospitalised with infections like viral, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry investigated associations between infectious diseases and the risk of death by suicide.

Researchers studied those aged 15 and above and the infections were divided into categories like bacterial, viral, others and infection type such as sepsis, hepatitis, genital, central nervous system, HIV or AIDS. There were about 8,09,384 (11.2%) individuals hospitalised with infection during follow-up. Among them, 32,683 suicide cases came up, and of those 7,892 (24.1%) individuals had been previously diagnosed with infection during hospitalisation.

Study results suggest hospitalisation with infection was linked to a 42% higher risk of suicide death compared to those individuals without infection. Also, the study suggested that more the infections, longer the treatment and higher the apparent risk of death by suicide.