title: Religion and suicide in patients with mental illness or cancer.
abstract: In Switzerland, the highest rates of suicide are observed in persons without religious affiliation and the lowest in Catholics, with Protestants in an intermediate position. We examined whether this association was modified by concomitant psychiatric diagnoses or malignancies, based on 6,909 suicides (ICD-10 codes X60-X84) recorded in 3.69 million adult residents 2001-2008. Suicides were related to mental illness or cancer if codes F or C, respectively, were mentioned on the death certificate. The protective effect of religion was substantially stronger if a diagnosis of cancer was mentioned on the death certificate and weaker if a mental illness was mentioned.
authors: Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. rpanczak@ispm.unibe.ch
authors: Radoslaw
authors: R
authors: Panczak
authors: Adrian
authors: A
authors: Spoerri
authors: Marcel
authors: M
authors: Zwahlen
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Bopp
authors: Felix
authors: F
authors: Gutzwiller
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Egger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity / Q000639:trends; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology