Somatic pathology among suicide risk factors. Report I

A review of the literature on the risk of suicidal behavior (SB) in various somatic diseases is presented. Factors increasing suicidal risk. The relationship between suicides and severity, duration (3-48 months) of physical illness, the frequency of hospitalizations indirectly indicating the severity of the disease is shown. The risk of SB is higher in young and old persons, that are lonely and have a low socioeconomic level (possibly due to a chronic disease); SB is higher in women. Depression (in 60% of the victims in the general population), substance abuse is closely associated with suicides. Chronic pain increases the risk of suicide by a factor of 2-3 over a lifetime. "Severe pain" is associated with a 5-fold increase in the risk of suicide; 4% of suicide attempts are initiated by pain, and 8.8% suicide attempters were registered to have signs of chronic pain. In 80-95% of oncological patients, chronic pain is recorded and the insufficient analgesic effect is the leading factor of suicidal risk among this category of patients (the risk of suicide is 4 times higher)...