Autoerotic deaths: a seven-year retrospective epidemiological study

Abstract

Epidemiological data on autoerotic deaths is still largely limited. The incidence has been evaluated in 1983 as approximately accounting from 500 to 1000 deaths per year in United States (considering the population back then, this corresponds to 2.2 to 4.4 cases per million inhabitants per year). However, this incidence has never been re-evaluated since. Also, it has been previously shown that the female proportion of all published cases is about 4.5%, while atypical cases represent about 10.3%. On a seven-year period, all autopsy cases for the Quebec province (Canada) were reviewed for autoerotic deaths. We found an incidence of 0.2 cases per 1 million inhabitants per year, a female representation of 11% and a proportion of atypical cases of 22%. Therefore, this study revealed that the widely cited incidence of 500-1000 autoerotic deaths per year may no longer be valid. In addition, atypical cases proportion seems to be underestimated.