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Spousal suicide increases risk for mental disorders

Experiencing spousal suicide increased risk for mental and physical disorders, as well as social outcomes, such as more municipal support, according to recent findings.

“Studies have linked mental health outcomes to spousal suicide and evidence of an effect on physical and social health outcomes is lacking. Also, those bereaved by other causes of sudden death experience mental disorders,” Annette Erlangsen, PhD, of Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention, Copenhagen, and colleagues wrote. “To our knowledge, however, whether any aspects of loss by suicide are worse than bereavement in general remains unexamined.”

To assess associations between bereavement after spousal suicide and risk for mental, physical and social health outcomes, researchers conducted a nationwide, register-based cohort study of 6.7 million individuals aged 18 years and older in Denmark. The cohort included 4,814 men and 10,793 women bereaved by spousal suicide.

Risk for mental disorders was higher among men (IRR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.6-2) and women (IRR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.6-1.8) bereaved by spousal support.

Participants bereaved by spousal support had higher risk for cirrhosis and sleeping disorders, as well as use of more municipal support, sick leave benefits and disability pension funds, compared with the general population.

Compared with spouses bereaved by other manners of death, those bereaved by spousal suicide had higher risk for mental disorders, suicidal behaviors, mortality and municipal support.

Researchers found participants bereaved by spousal support had higher levels of mental health care use.

“What should we make of these findings? They inspire confidence given their consistency across multiple outcome domains, and they build on many real-world observations, as well as past research,” Eric D. Caine, MD, of University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “While we cannot rule out the effect of spousal health concordance or the potential for assortative mating, those are issues that remain for future research. Right now, we know that those who remain behind following a spouse’s suicide carry as a group increased risk for greater disease burdens and for premature mortality when compared with peers. Thus, they deserve sustained attention beyond support during their time of acute grieving to promote health and to stave off potentially predictable, longer-term adverse consequences.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.