Citation

Kolves K, Mathieu S. Addiction 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/add.15983

PMID

35818316

Abstract

Alcohol consumption has been associated with suicidal behaviour on an aggregated and individual level. Numerous reviews have described the contributing pathways between both chronic and acute alcohol use and suicidality, such as greater impulsivity, cognitive constriction and tolerance of pain, and reduced psychological barriers against death resulting in greater risk of using highly lethal methods of suicide [1-4]. Recent theories of suicide suggest that alcohol consumption may play an important role in the transition from suicidal ideation to action; however, the issue of causality requires further investigation [5]. Furthermore, despite known gender differences in alcohol use and its consequences, the distinct pathways leading from (chronic and/or acute) alcohol use to suicidal behaviour have received less attention [3, 6].

Both alcohol use (particularly heavy use) and suicide rates have shown increasing trends in the United States in recent decades [7, 8]. Interestingly, the United States is one of the few countries around the world where suicide rates have been rising, and the Americas is the only World Health Organization Region with a rising trend of suicide rates since 2000 [9]. Lange and colleagues [10] argue that the rise in heavy alcohol use and suicide rates has been faster for women than for men, and they hypothesize that the accelerated increase in alcohol use has contributed to the simultaneous growth in suicide rates among women and narrowing of the gender gap in suicide in recent years. Authors utilized data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for 115 202 adults who died by suicide in the United States in 2003-18 and focused on the involvement of acute alcohol consumption at the time of suicide to investigate temporal trends. Analyses demonstrated a significant increase in the proportion of alcohol-involved suicides for women (young adult, middle-aged, older) during the study period, but not for men. However, it is important to note that the proportion was similarly increasing for males, but the trend has since started to decline from 2014.

In their study, Lange and colleagues [10] note that the overall suicide rate in the United States has decreased since 2018. They attribute this as potentially related to the emergence of the global novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Indeed, in the early stages of the pandemic suicide rates from multiple high-income countries did not show evidence of an increase and/or declined...

Language: en

Keywords

suicide; COVID-19; alcohol consumption; suicide prevention; Acute alcohol use; the United States