Brain weight in suicide - An exploratory study

Background There is little available literature on the effect of suicide me thods on brain weight. Aims To explore variations in postmortem brain weight in different methods of fatal self-harm (FSH) and in deaths from natural causes. Method A review of a sample of coroners' records of elderly persons (60 and above). Verdicts of suicide, misadventure and open verdicts were classifie d as FSH. Post-mortem brain weight for 142 FSH victims and 150 victims of u nexpected, sudden or unexplained death due to natural causes, and from vari ous methods of FSH, were compared. Results Brain weight of victims of FSH was significantly higher than of tho se who died of natural causes (P < 0.01); brain weights in both groups were within the normal range for this age group. There was no significant diffe rence in brain weight between different methods of FSH (P > 0.05). Conclusions The findings require critical examination and further research, to include data from younger age groups. A regional or national suicide ne uropathological database could be set up if all victims of FSH underwent ro utine neurohistochemical post-mortem examination. Declaration of interest None.