Biography
Biography: Tatiana Falcone
Abstract
In 2010, 38,364 Americans of all ages committed suicide which translates to one death every 13.7 minutes. Suicide rates are high among young people, suicide accounts for 13% of all adolescent deaths annually. The reported rate of suicide in patients with epilepsy is around 12% compared to 1.1-1.2% in the general population. Death by suicide has been reported in 5% of adult patients with epilepsy compared to 1.4% in the general population. There is a 5-fold increase in the rate of suicide among patients with epilepsy and up to 25-fold higher in people with temporal lobe epilepsy. Results from meta-analyses also indicate that patients with epilepsy have an increased risk of suicidal ideation and behavior. In a study analyzing 76 cohorts of people with epilepsy (N=60,846), 13 of the cohorts were made up of children. Among the child cohorts, the overall percent of death by suicide was 1.3%. Overall, the standardized mortality ratio for epilepsy patients was 3.3 (95% CI 2.8-3.7), 190 deaths were observed compared with the 58.4 expected. Some of the risk factors associated with suicide are mood disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse, previous suicide attempts and critical life events. Other epilepsy specific risk factors are stigma of epilepsy and peri-ictal mood dysphoria. Epilepsy patients who commit suicide tend to have early onset epilepsy, high seizure frequency, AED polytherapy and history of MDD. The severity of depression is probably the most important risk factor. Early screening is important to identify patients with epilepsy at risk for suicide.
