Partners of people who have committed suicide have a higher risk of taking their own lives, according to research published Thursday.

Men who lost a partner to suicide were 46 times as likely to kill themselves, which is three times the risk of women in similar circumstances.

Dr Esben Agerbo, of the University of Aarhus, in Denmark said in a report in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that the suicide of a spouse is particularly indicative of suicide in men.

The findings are based on a study of 475,000 Danes including 9,000 who committed suicide. The loss of a child through suicide or other causes nearly doubled the risk of suicide in both parents.

Agerbo said men are less likely to seek support after the death of a partner and may have more undetected and untreated mental illness, which could explain the different results among the sexes.