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Disease Epidemiology / Clinical Course / Other

Poster Session C

(C-036) Incidence Rates of Suicidality Related Events in Patients with Specific Chronic Skin Conditions

Tuesday, August 26, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET

    Presenting Author(s)

  • MA

    Marzyeh Amini

    Epidemiologist
    Department of Medical Informatics, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Netherlands

    • Co-Author(s)

  • AB

    Adam Black

    Department of Medical Informatics, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands

  • Gv

    Guido J. van Leeuwen

    Department of Medical Informatics, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Netherlands

  • TD

    Talita Duarte-Salles

    Department of Medical Informatics, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands

  • AP

    Anna Palomar-Cros, PhD

    Epidemiologist
    Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l’Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain, Spain

  • Agustina Giuliodori, PhD

    Data Scientist
    Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l’Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
    Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

  • Antonella Delmestri, PhD

    Lead Health Data Scientist
    University of Oxford, England, United Kingdom

  • JV

    Jakov Vuković, MD

    Public health physician
    Croatia National Public Health Information System, Croatia, Croatia

  • IP

    Ivan Pristaš, MD PhD

    CIO
    Croatian Institute of Public Health
    Zagreb, Croatia

  • AJ

    Anamaria Jurčević

    Croatia National Public Health Information System, Croatia, Croatia

  • M

    Marko Čavlina

    Croatian Institute of Public Health
    Zagreb, Grad Zagreb, Croatia

  • AJ

    Antea Jezidžić

    Department for Data Science and Analytics, Division for Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Croatian Institute of Public Health, Croatia

  • PI

    Pero Ivanko

    Croatia National Public Health Information System, Croatia, Croatia

  • GS

    Gabriel Sanfélix-Gimeno, PharmD, PhD

    Health Services Research and Pharmacoepidemiology Unit. The Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of Valencia Region (FISABIO).
    Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

  • FS

    Francisco Sanchez-Saez

    Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Community, Spain

  • Katia Verhamme, MD, PhD

    Associate Professor of Use and Analysis of Observational Data
    Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus Medical Center (MC)
    Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Background: Chronic skin conditions like acne and psoriasis cause significant physical and psychological distress, leading to social stigma and an increased risk of mental health issues. Concerns are rising about their potential link to suicidality-related events.

Objectives: To estimate the incidence rates of suicidality-related events in population with chronic skin conditions, both with and without a history of mental health disorders. These background incidence rates will be used by regulators to assess potential signals between drugs for skin conditions and the risk of suicide events.

Methods: In this population-level cohort study we included individuals who were observed for at least one year from 2010 to 2024 in five electronic health records of primary and secondary care data in four European countries (UK CPRD-Gold, Dutch IPCI, Croatian NAJS, Spanish SIDIAP, and Spanish VID). All data was previously mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) common data model. The outcome of interest was combination of any completed suicide, attempted suicide, suicidal ideation, intentional self-harm. We analyzed the yearly incidence rates ([cases/100,000 person-years (PYs)]) of suicide-related events in the acne, psoriasis, and the general population. Results were stratified by age, sex, and by medical history of mental health disorders.

Results: Incidence rates of outcomes in the acne population ranged over years and were different by database: 258.9–363.6/100,000 PYs (CPRD-Gold), 56.0–126.5 (IPCI), 34.0–77.1 (NAJS), 32.1–161.9 (SIDIAP), and 143.5-337.7 (VID). Rates of outcomes for psoriasis were lower in all databases, e.g. 166.7–264.8/100,000 PYs in UK and 30.9–104.3 in the Netherlands. The general population showed the lowest incidence rates, ranging between 146.7–212.6/100,000 PYs in UK and 15.2–95.0 in SIDIAP. Younger individuals (12–17 and 18–30 years) had the highest rates across all populations and databases, particularly in UK (481.9) and Spain (137.8) in the 12–17 age group.
Females consistently exhibited higher incidence rates than males in all populations. Similarly, prior mental health disorders significantly increased the risk of suicidality-related outcomes. In UK, individuals with acne and a history of mental health disorders reached rates of approximately 800/100,000 PYs, compared to less than 300 in those without.

Conclusions: Incidence rates of suicidality-related outcomes were the highest in individuals with acne, particularly among younger females, when compared to the psoriasis and general populations. The incidence rates for suicidality-related outcomes were notably elevated in individuals with prior mental health disorders, especially within the acne cohort.