Suicide risk jumps 42% for Danes hospitalized with infections

Those hospitalized for infections could be at a heightened risk of suicide, LiveScience reports. Looking at a registry of more than 7 million Danish citizens from 1980 to 2011, scientists found that those hospitalized for infections were 42% more likely to die from suicide, they report this week in JAMA Psychiatry . Although the scientists can’t assume hospitalization is directly causing suicide, they say their work backs up a hot theory that inflammation—one of the body’s main defenses against infection—influences depression by generating a chemical that interferes with brain signaling.