WEDNESDAY, March 11, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is associated with an increased hazard of self-harm and suicide, according to a study published online March 11 in JAMA Dermatology.

Nikolaj Holgersen, M.D., Ph.D., from Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues examined the rates of self-harm and suicide and factors associated with suicide in HS. Patients with HS were age- and sex-matched with individuals from the background population in a 1:5 ratio (9,566 patients with HS and 47,827 controls).

The researchers found that 3.3 percent of patients with HS and 1.1 percent of controls had an episode of self-harm (incidence rate [IR] per 1,000 person-years, 4.26). Patients with HS had a higher hazard of self-harm than controls in the adjusted model (hazard ratio, 2.13). The HS group with prior episodes versus without prior episodes of self-harm had a lower hazard of self-harm (hazard ratio, 1.43 versus 2.06) compared with respective control groups. During follow-up, 0.2 and 0.1 percent of patients with HS and controls, respectively, died by suicide (IR, 0.23 versus 0.08 per 1,000 person-years). Patients with HS had a higher hazard of suicide than controls in the adjusted model (hazard ratio, 2.54). Among those who died by suicide, nonviolent methods were more often used by patients with HS (52.9 versus 29.0 percent), and they more often had prior self-harm episodes than controls (41.7 versus 14.8 percent).

"HS was associated with a higher hazard of self-harm overall, although this was attenuated by controls with prior self-harm episodes, who may have a psychiatric burden more equal to that of the HS population," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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