US health officials report that almost 25 percent of people who take their own lives are intoxicated while they commit the act. From 2001 to 2005, an estimated 79,646 alcohol-attributed deaths occurred each year, and about 5,800 of those were associated with suicide, according to the US Center for Disease Control.
This is the first study that connects alcohol to suicide in a number of population groups, said Dr. Alex Crosby, an epidemiologist in the division of violence prevention at the CDC’s Injury Center. "There are some groups that may be at greater risk for alcohol being related to a suicide event."
Crosby’s team used data from 17 states from the National Violent Death Reporting System for 2005 and 2006, and they studied the relationship between alcohol and suicide in different racial and ethnic groups.
The study found that overall, 23.6 percent of suicides involved alcohol. The highest prevalence was among American Indian/Alaska natives (37.1 percent), Hispanic/Latinos (28.7 percent), and those aged 20 to 49 (28.2 percent).
"Alcohol is linked to suicide in a large proportion of suicide events, and there are steps that communities can take to try and make sure that suicide prevention activities address the issues of alcohol in their programs," Crosby said. "When suicide prevention programs are developed, they should include alcohol as one of the aspects of the program to incorporate."
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the findings highlight the interaction between alcohol and suicide. "The depression that results in suicide may result in drinking," Katz said. "Perhaps the suicide decision is made first, and the alcohol follows to numb the pain, or perhaps alcohol truly does convert passive despondency into desperate acts. If so, it is a contributor, not an essential cause—since the majority of suicides do not involve alcohol."
Depression and alcohol abuse are both significant public health problems, and the combination of the two is “highly volatile and potentially fatal,” Katz said. “Diligent, ongoing efforts to find and treat depression and to prevent excessive alcohol intake are needed so the two collide less often."