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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2000) 177: 257-261
© 2000 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Brain weight in suicide

An exploratory study

EMAD SALIB, FRCPsych, Honorary Senior Lecturer

Liverpool University

GEORGE TADROS, MRCPsych, Specialist Registrar in Old Age Psychiatry

Northern Birmingham Mental Health Trust

Correspondence: Emad Salib, Consultant Psychiatrist, Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington WA2 8WA, UK

Declaration of interest None.

Background There is little available literature on the effect of suicide methods on brain weight.

Aims To explore variations in postmortem brain weight in different methods of fatal self-harm (FSH) and in deaths from natural causes.

Method A review of a sample of coroners' records of elderly persons (60 and above). Verdicts of suicide, misadventure and open verdicts were classified as FSH. Post-mortem brain weight for 142 FSH victims and 150 victims of unexpected, sudden or unexplained death due to natural causes, and from various methods of FSH, were compared.

Results Brain weight of victims of FSH was significantly higher than of those who died of natural causes (P <0.01); brain weights in both groups were within the normal range for this age group. There was no significant difference in brain weight between different methods of FSH (P >0.05).

Conclusions The findings require critical examination and further research, to include data from younger age groups. A regional or national suicide neuropathological database could be set up if all victims of FSH underwent routine neurohistochemical post-mortem examination.




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