@article{ref1,
title="Preliminary investigation of the possible association between arsenic levels in drinking water and suicide mortality",
journal="Journal of affective disorders",
year="2015",
author="Rihmer, Zoltan and Hal, Melinda and Kapitány, Balazs and Gonda, Xenia and Vargha, Márta and Döme, Peter",
volume="182",
number="",
pages="23-25",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Arsenic-contaminated drinking water (ACDW) represents a major global public health problem. A few previous studies suggested that consuming ACDW may be associated with elevated risk for depression. <br><br>AIM: Since depression is the most relevant risk factor for suicide, we hypothesized that consumption of ACDW may be also associated with suicide. <br><br>METHOD: To investigate this, we compared the age-standardized suicide rates (SSR) of 1639 Hungarian settlements with low (≤10μg/l), intermediate (11-30μg/l), high (31-50μg/l) and very high (≥51μg/l) levels of arsenic in drinking water. <br><br>RESULT: We found a positive association between SSR and consumption of ACDW. LIMITATIONS: (1) we used aggregated (i.e., non-individual) data; (2) we have not adjusted our model for important medical and socio-demographic determinants of suicidal behavior; (3) we had no data on differences in bottled water consumption between settlements. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that in addition to its well-known adverse health effects, consumption of ACDW may also be associated with suicidal behavior.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0165-0327",
doi="10.1016/j.jad.2015.04.034",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.04.034"
}