B. Flaig

Brain weight in completed suicide and other cases of death-comparison of recent and previous studies

BackgroundThe weight of human brains is subject of numerous scientific research studies particularly in anatomy, pathology, and forensic medicine. Just a few investigations deal with a possible correlation between psychiatric disorders, especially suicidality, and brain weight. The results are contradictory.AimsThis study aims to find out if postmortem brain weight is higher in suicide victims considering the discrepancies of previous studies.MethodIn a retrospective study, the weight of brains obtained by autopsies performed in the Institute of Legal Medicine in Frankfurt, Germany, was evaluated. Data of 99 suicide cases (64 males, 35 females) were compared with those obtained from similar number cases of sudden death in a matched pair analysis. In each case, body weight, height, and body mass index were also taken into account.ResultsNo significant differences in brain weight were found in suicide victims compared to those of the control group.ConclusionsThe brain weight depends on various parameters such as gender, age, body height, and weight. The selection criteria for suicide cases as well as for the corresponding control population are essential in evaluating the brain weight in suicide.

Reply to commentary on “Anthropometrical differences between suicide and other non-natural death circumstances: an autopsy study”

Self-poisoning (n =75) was found to be the most common suicide method , followed by hanging (n =45), shot (n =41), blunt violence (n =34), drowning (n =22), sharp violence (n = 18) and others (n =10) (Fig. 2 [2]). The risk of distortion in terms of distribution of suicide methods by excluding cases with both leg amputation and decapitation leading to a selective reduction of blunt violent suicide cases was mentioned [1]. Of the 62 excluded cases in the square “inaccuracies of body weight and height” in Fig. 2 [2], only the minority were suicide cases. “Advanced stage of decomposition or mummification” [2] were the main reasons for exclusion. Excluded suicide cases were found in all of the five most common suicide methods. An inclusion of those cases leads to a higher number of suicides by blunt violence, but does not change the ranking of the suicide methods because cases of suicide method hanging as the second most common suicide method and shooting as the third were also excluded. On the one hand, cases of decapitation were not only caused by blunt violence but also by hanging ; on the other hand, both leg amputation was not only found to be caused by blunt violence but also years ago in the patients history.