Abstract
To the Editor.— Marzuk and colleagues 1 have prepared a disturbing and thoughtprovoking analysis demonstrating an increased rate of suicide among men who have been recently diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). We believe that they overstimated the risk of suicide by using inappropriate comparison populations. Nine of the 12 male AIDS patients who committed suicide in New York were known to be homosexual. Although good epidemiologic studies are lacking, homosexuality may be a risk factor for suicide. One study 2 demonstrated a 17-fold increased risk for unnatural deaths (preponderantly suicide and accidents that could have represented suicide) for intravenous drug users and homosexuals. If a population of homosexual men had been used for comparison, the relative risk of suicide for patients with AIDS would have been much less than the 36-fold increased risk calculated by the authors. Your editorialist, Dr Glass, 3 suggested that human immnunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing
Published Version
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