Feature Article
What We Know About Alcohol and Suicide
Decades of research on the link between alcohol and suicide have shown the following:
ALCOHOLISM A FACTOR
People with severe alcohol dependence or alcoholism have increased risk for suicide. One study found that alcoholism was the strongest single predictor of subsequent completed suicide in a sample of attempted suicides.
AGE AND SEX A FACTOR
As alcoholics age, they face increased risk for suicide. In other words, middle-aged and older alcoholics have a greater suicide risk than do young alcoholic adults, as do those who are male.
FIREARMS A FACTOR
A connection exists among alcohol and suicide and firearms. One study showed that suicide victims who had been drinking but not necessarily intoxicated, were 4.9 times more likely to have used firearms than those who had not been drinking.
BINGING A FACTOR
Suicide attempts among adults with alcohol dependence often occur in the context of an alcohol binge.(6) Another study found that high-school students who drink habitually and binge drink were more likely to have thoughts of suicide, made suicide plans and attempted suicide.
TROUBLE AT WORK A FACTOR
People whose drinking results in trouble at work are six times as likely as others to commit suicide in the home. The same study showed that people who were hospitalized with drinking problems had ten times the risk of death by suicide.
COCAINE A FACTOR
Cocaine use is associated with increased suicidal behavior and suicidal ideation in depressed alcoholics. This was not observed for other drug use such as cannabis (marijuana). In other words if a person with alcohol dependence and major depression uses cocaine, the risk for suicide is heightened even further than if that person did not use cocaine.
ALCOHOL AVAILABILITY A FACTOR
A recent study found that states in which more spirits are sold per capita have higher suicide rates, and concluded that a 10% increase in spirits sales would result in a 1.5% or 1.4% (two samples were used) increase in a state’s suicide rate.
MOOD DISORDERS A FACTOR
Medically serious suicide attempters with alcoholism are more likely to have a mood disorder than control subjects – that is, alcoholics that have not made suicide attempts.
UNEMPLOYMENT A FACTOR
Medically serious suicide attempters with alcoholism are more likely to have financial difficulties than control subjects – that is, alcoholics that have not made suicide attempts. (4) Also, when unemployment rates rise, so does per capita alcohol consumption and suicide for the population as a whole, according to a 1998 study of alcohol use and suicide in the United States between 1934 and 1987.
RELATIONSHIP DIFFICULTIES A FACTOR
Alcoholics who complete suicide are more likely to have partner-relationship difficulties and other interpersonal life stressors than control subjects.(4) The upshot? Suicide prevention efforts in alcoholics must include a focus on depression as well as interpersonal factors including partner-relationship difficulties.
YOUTH AND SUICIDE AND ALCOHOL
• A study of coroners’ reports and death certificates from 1978-1983 in Allegheny, Penn., found that 46% of adolescent suicide victims had alcohol in their blood – compared with just 12.9 percent in 1968-1972.
• A recent study of three states found that suicide rates among 18-20-year-olds decreased when the minimum legal drinking age was raised to 21, representing 424 lives per year.
• Teen suicide victims who were intoxicated (a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10% or more) were seven times more likely to have used a firearm than suicide victims with no alcohol in their blood.
Other things the research suggests
Programs should be tailored to different groups of people according to their risks. For example:
• Suicide prevention programs for younger female drinkers should stress detecting interpersonal conflict, conflict resolution, counseling and legal protection from abusive intimate partners in order to counter potential for suicide in these women.
• Suicide prevention programs for middle-aged female drinkers might focus on identifying and treating alcohol and other drug use as well as depression.
