Clozapine for the treatment of levodopa and dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease

Suicide and abortionSir -Fahy and Kelleher, in recent letters debated whether it was possible, in individual cases, to predict whether a woman denied an abortion is at higher risk for suicide.After a US Supreme Court decision in 1973 (Roe v Wade), abortion was legalised in the the US.This permits us to examine the changes in the suicide rate from the 10 year period prior to Roe v Wade (1963-1972) to the 10 year period after the decision (1974-1983).The suicide rate of men in the US increased significantly from the first period to the second period (from 16.3S to 18.91 per 100,000 per year, tl8 = 10.82,two-tailed p<0.001), whereas the suicide rate for men did not change significantly (6.18 and 6.13, tl8 = 0.23).Looking at the suicide rate for women by age (see Table 1), the suicide rate for those aged 15-24 increased from 1963-1972 to 1974-1983, that for women 25-34 did not change while that for women aged 35 and older decreased.Looking at the simple regression coefficients of suicide rate on year, for women aged 15 to 65, the suicide rate was increasing from 1963 to 1972.In contrast, the suicide rate for women of all ages from 1974 to 1983 was decreasing, with the greater speeds of decrease found for women aged 45-55 and 35-45.Thus, prior to Roe v Wade, the female suicide was rising in the US, whereas after Roe v Wade the female suicide rate was declining.Of course, many other social factors may have affected the suicide rates of men and women in America during the period studied (1963-1983), but the data are consistent with the hypothesis that liberalising the abortion laws was associated with a decrease in the suicide rates of women, and in particular women aged 35-54.