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Allergy is associated with suicide completion with a possible mediating role of mood disorder – a population‐based study
Author(s) -
Qin P.,
Mortensen P. B.,
Waltoft B. L.,
Postolache T. T.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2010.02523.x
Subject(s) - mood , medicine , allergy , population , context (archaeology) , psychiatry , danish , mood disorders , socioeconomic status , logistic regression , clinical psychology , psychology , demography , immunology , environmental health , paleontology , anxiety , linguistics , philosophy , sociology , biology
To cite this article: Qin P, Mortensen PB, Waltoft BL, Postolache TT. Allergy is associated with suicide completion with a possible mediating role of mood disorder – a population‐based study. Allergy 2011; 66 : 658–664. Abstract Background: With increasing research suggesting a role of allergy on suicidality, this study, on a population level, delved into how allergy affects risk for suicide completion in the context of mood disorder and other factors. Methods: Based on the entire population of Denmark, we included 27 096 completed suicides and 467 571 live controls matched on sex and age with a nested case–control design. We retrieved personal information on hospital contacts for allergy and other variables from various Danish longitudinal registries and analyzed the data with conditional logistic regression. Results: We noted that 1.17% suicide victims, compared with 0.79% matched controls, had a history of hospital contact for allergy and that a history of allergy predicted an increased risk for suicide completion; however, the effect was confined to allergy that led to inpatient treatment (IRR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.41–1.80). The increased risk was attenuated somewhat but remained significant when adjusted for personal psychiatric history and socioeconomic status. Meanwhile, we observed a nonsignificantly stronger effect in women than in men, and a significant age difference with a stronger effect for individuals at high ages. Moreover, we detected a significant interaction between allergy and mood disorder – even an antagonism effect of the two exposures. Allergy increased suicide risk only in persons with no history of mood disorder, whereas it eliminated suicide risk in those with a history of mood disorder. Conclusions: The findings support a link between allergy and suicidality, with a possible mediating role of mood disorder.