Fathers’ alcohol use and suicidal behaviour in offspring during youth and young adulthood

Abstract

Fathers' alcohol use and suicidal behaviour in offspring during youth and young adulthood Landberg J, Danielsson A-K, Hemmingsson T. Fathers' alcohol use and suicidal behaviour in offspring during youth and young adulthood.Objective: To examine the association between various indicators of father's alcohol use and suicidal behaviour in offspring during youth and young adulthood. Methods: The study is based on a cohort of 68 910 Swedish citizens who were born between 1970 and 1985 and have fathers who participated in conscription for compulsory military training in 1969/ 70. Information on fathers' alcohol use was collected during conscription. Offspring was followed for suicide attempts or completed suicides (through linkage with national registers) from age 12 to end of follow-up in 2008. Results: After adjustment for confounders, the hazard ratio (HR) for offspring to fathers who were heavy drinkers was 1.4 (95% CI 1.02, 1.93) while the associations turned non-significant for offspring to fathers who often drank into intoxication, HR 1.14 (0.68, 1.90). The highest risk for suicidal behaviour was found for offspring to fathers who had been apprehended for drunkenness two times or more, or with an alcohol-related hospitalization, with adjusted HRs of 2.1 (1.4, 3,14) and 1.9 (1.27, 2,85) respectively. Conclusion: Fathers' alcohol use is associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviour among offspring in youth and young adulthood. Significant outcomes• The highest risk for suicidal behaviour was found for offspring to fathers with the most problematic consumption, that is having been apprehended for drunkenness or with an diagnosed alcohol-related disorder.• Offspring to fathers drinking heavily, but without alcohol-related disorders, were also of increased risk for suicidal behaviour.• Most indicators of fathers' alcohol use had an effect over and above other predictors of suicidal behaviour in offspring that tend to co-occur with parental heavy drinking. Limitations• The self-reported indicators of fathers' alcohol use were measured in fathers' youth and do not measure actual exposure to parental drinking during the offspring childhood, but rather whether fathers' alcohol use in youth translates into risk for suicide in offspring.• We had no self-reported information on maternal alcohol use. 563

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“…It is not surprising that drug use was found to have the strongest associations with suicidal behaviour in this current study, as these variables have been found to have the strongest relationships with suicidal behaviours in longitudinal samples [22,23]. The plausible pathway linking drug use to suicidal behaviour is that drug users, especially adolescents addicted to marijuana suffer from depression [24][25][26] which then in uence and impair their thoughts and emotions. Drug use, in addition to smoking marijuana and alcoholism, has been observed to have the combined effects of complicating the course of depression and impairing the judgement of a person experiencing depression, and at the same time resulting in high impulsivity which leads to acute life-threatening behaviour such as suicide [25].…”

“…The plausible pathway linking drug use to suicidal behaviour is that drug users, especially adolescents addicted to marijuana suffer from depression [24][25][26] which then in uence and impair their thoughts and emotions. Drug use, in addition to smoking marijuana and alcoholism, has been observed to have the combined effects of complicating the course of depression and impairing the judgement of a person experiencing depression, and at the same time resulting in high impulsivity which leads to acute life-threatening behaviour such as suicide [25]. Globally, evidence suggests that those who abuse drugs are at higher risk and that is an important variable in the aetiology of suicidal behaviour [27].…”

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“…The studies are often concerned with patterns and risks over time and test for social, psychological and interactional determinants of problems – e.g., within the school or family ( Olsson et al, 2019 ; Thor et al, 2019 ). Other areas of research include methodological studies ( Ledberg & Wennberg, 2014 ; Samuelsson et al, 2019 ) and intergenerational studies, focusing on how parental substance use problems translate into adverse consequences in offspring ( Hemmingsson et al, 2017 ; Landberg et al, 2019 ). A recent addition is a PhD project which uses the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study to examine the long-term effect of social relationships on the association between childhood disadvantage and risk of substance-related disorders in adulthood.…”

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“…However, adverse effects of having a parent with AUD are measurable from birth and range from somatic [ 2 ] and mental disorders [ 8 ] to increased mortality [ 2 , 9 ]. Adult children of parents with AUD are at raised risk for substance use disorders [ 5 , 10 , 11 ], mental health problems [ 11 , 12 ], violence [ 2 ], and suicide [ 13 ]. Previous studies also highlight that children who grow up with a parent who has AUD are at higher risk for outcomes that can negatively affect later socioeconomic position, such as lower levels of school performance [ 14 ], unemployment during their teen years and young adulthood [ 2 ], and teenage pregnancy [ 2 ].…”