According to the literature, consumption of cigarettes has been related to suicidal behavior. Furthermore, evidence suggests that increased consumption of cigarettes is associated with an increased risk of suicide.

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1. - To verify the association between the consumption of cigarettes and completed suicide.

2. - To confirm a higher consumption of cigarettes in completed suicide versus controls.

Completed old suicide and controls were recruited through the Institute of Legal Medicine of the province of Seville, Spain. After the physical autopsy was conducted, family members were asked for a posterior interview following the Psychological Autopsy methodology.

There were 412 subjetcs collected for this study; 270 completed suicide and 142 controls.

Only one third of suicides did never smoke whether almost half of controls did so (27.5% vs. 47.2%; c2=23.73; df:3; p<0.0001). We did not find any difference between the quantity of cigarettes used by those subjects that smoke daily in suicides (53.2%) and controls (44.5%). However this lack of association may be due to the type of controls. Controls were in a substantial percentage cardiac sudden death subject and smoking tobacco has been largely associated with cardiovascular disorders.-Almost 50% of controls had never smoked (compared to 27% of suicides).

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1. - There are fewer subjects that have never started smoking within the suicide subjects compared to controls.

2. - The number of cigarretes in those who smoke daily was not associated to any group. This results may be influenced by the characteristics of our control population.