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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 11/2012

01-11-2012 | Original Paper

Ante- and perinatal circumstances and risk of attempted suicides and suicides in offspring: the Northern Finland birth cohort 1966 study

Authors: Antti Alaräisänen, Jouko Miettunen, Anneli Pouta, Matti Isohanni, Pirkko Räsänen, Pirjo Mäki

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 11/2012

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate those ante- and perinatal circumstances preceding suicide attempts and suicides, which have so far not been studied intensively.

Methods

Examination of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n = 10,742), originally based on antenatal questionnaire data and now followed up from mid-pregnancy to age 39, to ascertain psychiatric disorders in the parents and offspring and suicides or attempted suicides in the offspring using nationwide registers.

Results

A total of 121 suicide attempts (57 males) and 69 suicides (56 males) had occurred. Previously unstudied antenatal factors (maternal depressed mood and smoking, unwanted pregnancy) were not related to these after adjustment. Psychiatric disorders in the parents and offspring were the risk factors in both genders. When adjusted for these, the statistically significant risk factors among males were a single-parent family for suicide attempts (OR 3.71, 95% CI 1.62–8.50) and grand multiparity for suicides (OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.15–6.18). When a psychiatric disorder in females was included among possible risk factors for suicide attempts, it alone remained significant (OR 15.55, 8.78–27.53).

Conclusions

A single-parent family was a risk factor for attempted suicides and grand multiparity for suicides in male offspring even after adjusting for other ante- and perinatal circumstances and mental disorders in the parents and offspring. Mothers’ antenatal depressed mood and smoking and unwanted pregnancy did not increase the risk of suicide, which is a novel finding.
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Metadata
Title
Ante- and perinatal circumstances and risk of attempted suicides and suicides in offspring: the Northern Finland birth cohort 1966 study
Authors
Antti Alaräisänen
Jouko Miettunen
Anneli Pouta
Matti Isohanni
Pirkko Räsänen
Pirjo Mäki
Publication date
01-11-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 11/2012
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0479-8

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