Suicidal behaviour among alcohol-dependent Danes attending outpatient treatment

Abstract

The association between alcohol dependence and suicidal behaviour is well established and patients with suicidal behaviour in treatment for alcohol dependence present a considerable challenge for clinical services. The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for suicide attempts and to evaluate the outcome of treatment in patients in treatment for alcohol dependence. Semi-structured, detailed interviews were administered at baseline and at three sequential follow-up interviews with a large sample of 1692 patients at an outpatient treatment centre in the county of Funen in Denmark. Characteristics of, predictors for and outcome among suicidal patients were studied. Alcohol-dependent patients with a history of suicide attempts were found to constitute a highly selected group in alcohol abuse treatment as they often had a more severe course of alcohol dependence, were unemployed, younger, were more often lowly educated, and had more physical and psychiatric problems. Traumatic childhood experience related to physical or sexual abuse was found as a major predictor for suicidal behaviour among alcohol-dependent patients. We found no significant difference in the effect of treatment in patients with and without suicidal behaviour. These results support the hypothesis that alcohol-dependent patients with a history of suicide attempts are a selected group in respect to a number of demographical and psychosocial factors, but we found no difference in the outcome of treatment. This may imply that suicidal patients in treatment for alcohol abuse are treated effectively within the present treatment settings.

A study on the association of psychiatric diagnoses and childhood adversities with suicide risk

“…In line with previous studies [36][37][38][39] alcohol and drug dependence consistently associated with risk of suicide. In males, however, alcohol abuse had no specific association with suicide risk, indicating that co-morbid affective disorders, dysthymia and social anxiety in particular, are more decisive regarding suicide risk of men.…”

Depressed Multiple-Suicide­Attempters – A High-Risk Phenotype

“…A relation between alcohol/drug abuse and suicidal behavior has been observed by many research groups (Modesto-Lowe, Brooks, & Ghani, 2006; Oquendo et al., 2010; Pirkola, Suominen, & Isometsä, 2004; Sher et al, 2009; Sokero et al., 2003). Studies have shown that 16–29% of all patients in treatment for alcohol dependence have attempted suicide (Hesselbrock, Hesselbrock, Syzmanski, & Weidenman, 1988; Pektas, Mirsal, Kalyoncu, Ünsalan, & Beyazyürek, 2004; Petersen, Grønbaek, Rask, Nielsen, & Nielsen, 2009; Preuss et al, 2002). Possibly, our study underestimates the percentage of substance users among depressed patients with or without a history of suicide attempt because subjects with current active substance abuse were not enrolled in the study.…”

Antecedents and Covariates of Alcohol Consumption among Swiss Male Conscripts

“…Suicidal behavior was found to be more prevalent in abstainers, and even more so in high frequent drinkers, supported by multivariate results. Studies investigating risk factors for suicide attempts revealed that alcohol consumption, and psychiatric symptoms, are important agents of suicide behavior [ 26 , 27 ]. Current alcohol use was further associated with increasing health care use across the drinking frequency categories, whereas abstainers (and frequent drinkers) also slightly deviated from rare and occasional drinkers following such a “J”-curve.…”