Study Highlights Relationship Between Alcohol, Suicide, and Firearms

Alcohol intoxication is associated with an increased risk of suicide death by firearms compared with other methods, especially among males and among young and middle-aged females, astudy in theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests.“Understanding the nuances of the relationship between alcohol and firearm-involved suicides—the method of suicide that makes up the greatest proportion of suicides in the U.S.—allows for a better understanding of how a prevention initiative targeting alcohol (e.g., alcohol taxation), for exam ple, would impact suicide in the U.S.,” wrote Shannon Lange, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, in Toronto and colleagues.The researchers examined data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for 34,972 females and 113,851 males who died by suicide from 2003 to 2020. The researchers divided the individuals according to age at time of death: young, aged 18 to 34 years; middle-aged, aged 36 to 64 years; and older, aged 65 years or older. The individuals ’ blood alcohol content at the time of death was determined via toxicology testing. The researchers defined alcohol intoxication as having a blood alcohol content of at least 0.08 g/dL, which corresponds to approximately four drinks for females and five drinks for males within two hours.Overall, males were more likely to be intoxicated at the time of death than females, and people in the young and middle-aged gro...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: alcohol alcohol intoxication American Journal of Preventive Medicine blood alcohol level firearm firearm-related suicide prevention Source Type: research