Suicide Prevention Day: New Study Links Suicide Mortality Rates to Alcohol-related Factors

From: Center of Addiction and Mental Health

For Immediate Release - September 8, 2006 (TORONTO) – Suicide Prevention Day (September 10) challenges us to better understand this tragic phenomenon, and a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) offers important evidence on the link between alcohol and suicide. The study shows that high levels of alcohol consumption increase suicide rates. These results confirm the significant relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed in the population and the number of suicide deaths.

Lead by Dr. Robert Mann, Senior Scientist at CAMH, this study aimed to identify alcohol-related factors that influence suicide mortality rates in Ontario. Researchers examined the impact of: per capita or average consumption of total alcohol; per capita consumption of distilled spirits, beer, and wine; unemployment rates; and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) membership on suicide rates in Ontario between 1968 and 1991. They investigated the impact of these factors on suicide rates for the total population, and for males and females separately.

Dr. Mann and his colleagues found that as alcohol consumption levels rise, suicide mortality rates increase as well. The researchers observed this link for total alcohol consumption, and for consumption of beer, wine or spirits separately. Unemployment rates also impacted suicide mortality, with suicide mortality increasing as unemployment rates increased. However, increasing AA membership acted to decrease suicide rates.

Said Dr. Mann, “these results suggest that a 1-litre increase in alcohol consumption led to an increase of 11% to 39% in suicides. This observation is consistent with individual-level studies that show that heavy drinking, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence increase a person’s risk of suicide substantially. Similarly, increasing unemployment rates increased suicide rates as well. However, it was heartening to see that increasing AA membership was related to reduced suicide mortality rates.”

Also, the study found interesting gender differences. In particular, the relationships of suicide rates to alcohol factors seemed to be stronger for females than for males. This observation stands in contrast to earlier observations by these investigators, which showed that the influence of alcohol factors on death rates from alcohol-related liver disease was similar for both males and females.

Suicide is a major cause of death. According to Statistics Canada, there were 3,688 deaths due to suicide in 2001. Identifying factors that can increase or reduce suicide deaths is a public heath priority. It is important to identify programs and policies that will help reduce suicide rates, but doing this is extremely difficult.

According to Dr. Mann, “other research shows that introducing substance use policies can have an important beneficial effect on suicide mortality rates. Our research results provide support for the potential of substance-related policy measures, particularly those related to alcohol, to influence suicide rates.”

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is a specialized teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is the largest mental health and addiction facility in Canada. CAMH is also a Pan American Health Organization and a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

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For more information or to schedule interviews with survey investigators, please contact Michael Torres, Media Relations Coordinator, CAMH, at (416) 595-6015.