Findings indicated that there was a decrease in suicide attempts during the Christmas holiday, with a rebound increase during the New Year holiday. In a 2005 study from Denmark, Makela et al11 examined all cause-of-death designations between the years 1987 and 2001 using a population registry. Among other holidays, Christmas was described as having a higher rate of observed deaths due to alcohol poisoning compared with the expected death rate. In addition to misuse patterns, two studies have examined fatal alcohol poisonings during the Christmas holiday. In a 2002 study from Finland, Poikolainen et al10 examined all deaths due to alcohol poisoning between the years 1983 and 1999. Among the 6,000-plus deaths, a peak death rate was observed during the Christmas celebration.
How Does Alcohol Misuse Affect Suicide and Suicidal Attempts?
It is especially difficult to distinguish suicide from accidental poisoning. It is quite common that a drunk person drinks various poisonous liquids, in the belief that these are alcoholic drinks. This happens when poisonous liquids are stored in bottles with labels of vodkas, wines, or other alcoholic drinks. Additionally, a wrong combination of drugs, especially prescribed by several doctors, can cause a strong toxic effect that is dangerous to health and life 22. Using the FAERS to characterize the DSP reports, we observed peaks in 2007–2008 and 2019–2020, with a higher contribution by young individuals and psychiatric diagnoses, and a higher fatality in older men and with alcohol use.
The Utilization of Psychiatric Services
Alcohol in the stomach and intestine continues to enter the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body. Conceptualization—A.S.; validation—A.S.; formal analysis—A.S.; resources—A.S., writing—original draft preparation—A.S., A.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Even small increases in BAC can decrease motor coordination, make a person feel sick, and cloud judgment. This can increase an individual’s risk of being injured from falls or car crashes, experiencing acts of violence, and engaging in unprotected or unintended sex. When BAC reaches high levels, blackouts (gaps in memory), loss of consciousness (passing out), and death can occur.
Using alcohol with opioid pain relievers, such as oxycodone and morphine, or illicit opioids, such as heroin, is also a very dangerous combination. Like alcohol, these drugs suppress areas in the brain that control how to smoke moon rocks vital functions such as breathing. Ingesting alcohol and other drugs together intensifies their individual effects and could produce an overdose with even moderate amounts of alcohol.
Consistent with the primary conclusion of a smaller review of social determinants of deaths of despair,19 future research could focus on a more diverse set of SDOH and area-level predictors of alcohol-related mortality in community health research and prevention. Further, few U.S. states have restrictive alcohol policy environments;93 therefore, future work examining sub-state variation in alcohol policies and impacts on alcohol-related mortality may yield useful findings. Policies targeting other substances also may contribute to reduced alcohol-related mortality, and these policies may interact with health care services as well. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a detailed analysis of acute use of alcohol and the 3 leading methods of suicide using NVDRS data and to explore age, gender, and racial/ethnic differences in the use of alcohol before suicide and the dosage of alcohol.
Search Methods Employed
- It showed peaks of reporting in 2007, 2015 and 2020, and a higher contribution by women and younger people.
- Between groups differences were tested using logistic regression and analysis of variance.
- This leads to rapid increases in BAC and significantly impairs brain and other bodily functions.
- Among the 6,000-plus deaths, a peak death rate was observed during the Christmas celebration.
The preceding decreases appear to exhibit a rebound phenomena following the Christmas holiday. These findings are in line with a review by Friedberg,23 who reported that there is no increase in general psychopathology during the Christmas holiday, but rather an increase in dysphoric moods. The characteristics of the included studies are summarized and listed in Table 1. A study 52 assessed the association between AUD and suicide in two different countries (the USA and France) concurrently. Thus, this study is presented twice in Table 1 as well as the forest plots.
Risk Factors
For women, binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks in the span of 2 hours. Prevalence estimates and BAC means were estimated for the different sociodemographic indicators by method of suicide. Between groups differences were tested using logistic regression and analysis of variance.
In fact, for every death due to war, there are three deaths due to homicide and five deaths due to suicide 5. It is estimated that about one million people die annually from suicide, i.e., a global mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds 2. Several original studies have investigated the effect of alcohol use disorder (AUD) on suicidal thought and behavior, but there are serious discrepancies across the studies. Thus, a systematic assessment of the association between AUD and suicide is required. In addition, Kaplan said, the findings should prompt suicide prevention workers to probe for alcohol intoxication when dealing with people who are suicidal. The researchers say these findings suggest that alcohol use may have been a core driver in the accelerated increase in suicide among U.S. women.
Eventually, 31 studies included in the meta-analysis, including 9 cohort studies 23–31 and 10 case-control studies 32–41 and 12 cross-sectional studies 42–53. Studies that explicitly operationalize area-based measures of structural racism, including segregation and redlining, could help the field move beyond purely descriptive analysis of racial and ethnic composition in relation to alcohol-related mortality. Analysis of the political context also was lacking, and studies of how gerrymandering and state actions designed to increase or decrease racial and ethnic segregation may impact mortality due to alcohol use also would be informative. In future research, attention to both subgroup differences and pathways from racism and discrimination to alcohol-related mortality would advance efforts to improve community health.