PERILS OF ENHANCEMENT: Do Implants Trigger Suicide?

Over the years, breast implants have inspired envy, ogling and insecurity--as well as health concerns and multimillion-dollar lawsuits. But suicide? It seems so, according to a study of 3,521 Swedish women who had breast implants between 1965 and 1993 for purely cosmetic reasons (and not, for example, to replace breasts lost to cancer). Researchers found that surgically enhanced women were nearly three times as likely to commit suicide.

"Given the well-documented link between psychiatric disorders and a desire for cosmetic surgery," write the authors of the study in the British Medical Journal, "the increased risk for death from suicide may reflect a greater prevalence of psychopathology." That may sound harsh, but it may also represent an opportunity for early intervention if surgeons spot underlying psychological problems among candidates for implants. This doesn't prove, of course, that there is any direct causal link between the implants--or the desire to have them--and suicidal tendencies. Sometimes a D cup is just a D cup. --By David Bjerklie