Higher Risk of Suicide in Bipolar Patients Who Abuse Alcohol
July 23, 2010 by Leslie E. Packer PhD
Filed under Research
Jessica Ward Jones, MD, MPH of PsychCentral.com summarizes some new research in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry:
Alcohol, especially in a person with bipolar disorder, may increase the risk of suicide.
New research released this week suggests bipolar patients who abuse or are dependent on alcohol are more likely to attempt suicide than bipolar patients who abstain.
Dr. Maria A. Oquendo from the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, and her colleagues, found that the odds of attempting suicide in bipolar patients are more than doubled if the individual either abuses or is dependent on alcohol.
[...]
Oquendo and her colleagues used data from the 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to identify 1,643 individuals with bipolar disorder from the 43,093 surveyed. The NESARC is a large survey of the general population which includes questions about many areas related to substance use and mental health.
The records of the 1,643 individuals with bipolar disorder were assessed for any lifetime evidence of alcohol abuse, any history of suicide attempt, and any history of suicidal thinking.
Oquendo found that 54 percent of the individuals with bipolar disorder also reported alcohol abuse. The odds of a suicide attempt were higher (odds ratio 2.25) in the bipolar patients who abused alcohol than in those who did not.
The authors also found that the bipolar patients who abused alcohol were more likely to also use tobacco or to abuse other substances. Neither tobacco nor other substance abuse appeared to have an affect on suicide risk in this study.
The reference is:
Maria A. Oquendo, MD; Dianne Currier, PhD; Shang-Min Liu, MS; Deborah S. Hasin, PhD; Bridget F. Grant, PhD, PhD; and Carlos Blanco, MD, PhD: Increased Risk for Suicidal Behavior in Comorbid Bipolar Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorders: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(7):902–909.
