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Suicide in the United States End-Stage Renal Disease Program

Manjula Kurella^*, Paul L. Kimmel, Belinda S. Young^* and Glenn M. Chertow^*

^* Division of Nephrology, Moffitt-Long Hospitals and UCSF-Mt. Zion Medical Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California; and Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC

Address correspondence to: Dr. Glenn M. Chertow, Department of Medicine Research, University of California San Francisco, Laurel Heights, 3333 California Street, Suite 430, San Francisco, CA 94118-1211. Phone: 415-476-2173; Fax: 415-476-9531; E-mail: chertowg{at}medicine.ucsf.edu

Although depression and dialysis withdrawal are relatively common among individuals with ESRD, there have been few systematic studies of suicide in this population. The goals of this study were to compare the incidence of suicide with national rates and to contrast the factors associated with suicide with those associated with withdrawal in persons with ESRD. All individuals who were aged 15 yr and older and initiated dialysis between April 1, 1995, and November 30, 2000, composed the analytic cohort. Patients were censored at the time of death, transplantation, or October 31, 2001. Death as a result of suicide in the ESRD population and the general US population was ascertained from the Death Notification Form and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, respectively. Standardized incidence ratios for suicide among patient subgroups were computed using national data from the year 2000 as the reference population. The crude suicide rate from 1995 to 2001 was 24.2 suicides per 100,000 patient-years, and the overall standardized incidence ratio for suicide was 1.84 (95% confidence interval, 1.50 to 2.27). In multivariable models, age 75 yr, male gender, white or Asian race, geographic region, alcohol or drug dependence, and recent hospitalization with mental illness were significant independent predictors of death as a result of suicide. Persons with ESRD are significantly more likely to commit suicide than persons in the general population. Although relatively rare, risk assessment can be used to identify patients for whom counseling and other interventions might be beneficial.

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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Nephrology. Online ISSN: 1533-3450 Print ISSN: 1046-6673