Association between suicide and cardiovascular disease: time series of 27 years.

Despite several proatherogenic characteristics distinguish subjects who commit suicide, it remains unclear whether or not the incidence of suicide and cardiovascular disease are related. Between 1979 and 2005, a total of 3,364,908 deaths were reported from suicide, ischemic heart disease, or stroke of individuals who were 40 years or older. The incidence of deaths from suicide was positively correlated with those from ischemic heart disease (r=0.95;p<0.0001) and stroke (r=0.92;p<0.0001). No such correlation was found between suicides and deaths from other non-cardiovascular or non-atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. This study calls attention for the existence of an association between suicide behavior and cardiovascular risk.