Since 2017, there has been a steady decline in the number of suicides under the influence of alcohol. In 2017, alcohol was found in 602 suicide victims, whereas in the year 2020 it was found 521 suicides. The suicide attempt data collected in the period from 1999 to 2020 are shown in Table 1 and distributed by year and intoxication substance. The total number of suicides of all causes was 106,169 in the 21-year study period.

How Alcohol Use Affects the Risk of Death by Suicide

Antiepileptic, sedative-hypnotic, anti-parkinsons, and psychotropic drugs, not elsewhere classified, as well as other unspecified drugs, medicaments, and biological substances were the second cause of death as a result of intentional self-poisoning (Table 5). Poisoning by and exposure to other unspecified drugs, medicaments, and biological substances, as well as poisoning by and exposure to other gases and vapors, were the second cause of deaths as a result of undetermined intent (Table 6). Suicide is a global phenomenon that results from a complex interaction between risk factors and triggers, including alcohol and drugs 1. Consciousness disorders caused by alcohol consumption or the use of other psychoactive substances are observed in 25%–50% of all suicide victims 2. All analyses and visualizations were obtained using R version 4.1.2 (The R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). Note that these previous studies of completed suicide have consisted of samples from general populations, typically through the use of large registries.

1. Suicidal poisoning refers to intoxication with carbon monoxide contained in the light gas.
2. The studies examined showed a clear majority of male subjects; however, there were no sufficient data on the type of suicide or the relationship between the kind of substance in case of self-poisoning and gender.
3. The post-mortem cardiac blood and vitreous humor alcohol level was found to be 9.0 and 6.2 mg/ml respectively.
4. Therefore, speculations about DSP trends should carefully consider the kind of date chosen, and also the potential bias resulting from regulatory actions and mass media communications 44.
5. Alcohol at very high levels can hinder signals in the brain that control automatic responses, such as the gag reflex.

Research on methods of committing suicide and the risk factors involved in suicide by consuming poison is still inadequate. Moreover, literature studies are often not homogeneous, leading to inconsistent and non-representative socio-demographic and public health analyses of such phenomena. Socio-cultural background and legislation influence rates and methods of suicide.

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We screened 8548 retrieved references and included 31 eligible studies in the meta-analysis involving 420,732 participants. Thus, the evidence was sufficient to make a robust conclusion regarding the objective of the study for estimating the association between AUD and suicide. Measures of alcohol effect were expressed as risk ratio (RR) and odds ratio how old is demi lovato (OR). RR is the relative incidence risk of events in the exposed group versus the non-exposed group occurring at any given point in time. OR is the relative odds of outcome in the exposed group versus the non-exposed group occurring at any given point in time.

The five most reported drugs were paracetamol (10.1%), promethazine (3.5%), amlodipine (3.4%), quetiapine (3.2%), and metformin (2.9%) (see Table 1). The CFR was highest for oxycodone (60.8%) and lowest for promethazine (0.5%) (see Fig. 1). Multiple drug intake (53.9%; 51.5% when excluding multiple drug intake exclusively due to one multi-ingredient medication) recorded a higher CFR (20.5% vs. 13.3% for single drug intake).

Associated Data

Several reviews have discussed the relationship between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and suicidal thoughts and behavior, but none has given a pooled effect estimate 9–11. An old meta-analysis was conducted by Smith et al 12 based on studies published before 1999. They measured blood alcohol concentration among unintentional injury deaths as well as homicide and suicide cases and concluded that blood alcohol concentration was high among the victims.

Significant differences in the substances used for suicide by self-poisoning were observed in the examined studies (Figure 2). In the USA, an elective study by Cuchara et al. 21 of suicide cases where autopsy was carried out revealed that out of 394 cases, 71 (18%) were attributable to poison intake. The most frequently detected substances in the toxicological examination were benzodiazepines, opioids, antidepressants, and ethanol. However, the most used methods were use of firearms and suicide by hanging, with an apparent reduction in the use of other means.

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. Self-poisoning is one of the most common methods used to attempt suicide in Poland 24. Nearly 70% of suicide victims consume a toxic substance prior to death, and the primary method used in one in five suicides in the United States in 2006–2008 was overdose 25. According to Cavanagh and Smith 9, self-poisoning is a common method, accounting for over half of all female suicides. Fatal self-poisoning most frequently involves pesticides, analgesics, and antidepressants.