BMJ 2001;323:817-818 ( 13 October )

Editorials

Dying for a drink

Global suicide prevention should focus more on alcohol use disorders

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Suicide prevention requires a comprehensive response to the intimate link between alcohol use disorders and suicide. Major community based biographical (psychological autopsy) studies in the West and the East have consistently reported a high prevalence of alcohol use disorders among people who committed suicide---for example, 56% in New York,1 43% in Northern Ireland,2 and 34% in Madras.3 Such figures are far in excess of the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in the general population. In fact, alcohol use disorder was the most frequent DSM-III-R axis I psychiatric disorder (mood, psychotic, substance use, etc) in the studies cited. According to a meta-analysis of mortality studies, the lifetime risk of suicide is 7% for alcohol dependence.4 Interestingly, in a recently reported time series analysis a significant positive relation between per capita alcohol consumption and gender and age specific suicide rates was revealed most often in dry (low consumption) cultures (northern Europe) . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Emergency departments are well placed to identify alcohol misuse problems
Robert Patton, Mike Crawford, and Robin Touquet
BMJ 2002 324: 300. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Malone, D, Friedman, T (2005). Drunken patients in the general hospital: their care and management. Postgrad. Med. J. 81: 161-166 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • McCloud, A., Barnaby, B., Omu, N., Drummond, C., Aboud, A. (2004). Relationship between alcohol use disorders and suicidality in a psychiatric population: In-patient prevalence study. Br. J. Psychiatry 184: 439-445 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Feinstein, A. (2002). An examination of suicidal intent in patients with multiple sclerosis. Neurology 59: 674-678 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Patton, R., Crawford, M., Touquet, R. (2002). Emergency departments are well placed to identify alcohol misuse problems. BMJ 324: 300-300 [Full text]  

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