The Safety of Silicone Gel-Filled Breast Implants: a Review of the Epidemiologic Evidence

This article summarizes the epidemiologic evidence on the safety of breast implants. Topics addressed include suicide. 5 large-scale epidemiological mortality studies conducted in various populations have reported women with cosmetic breat implants have a 2-3-fold higher rate of suicide than similar-aged women in the general population. Three nationwide cohort studies in Scandinavia have been conducted with similar results. Future studies are needed to determine whether the consistently observed excess of suicide among women with implants reflects underlying psychiatric illness prior to breast augmentation surgery or other factors. (113 refs.)