While suicidal behavior and substance misuse have been linked in the past, the relationship between the two is not so simple. A new study of hundreds of suicidal emergency department (ED) patients from around the United States shows the significance of the link varies with age, gender, and race.
Across the board, however, the use of cocaine and alcohol together is a red flag.
“One unexpected finding was that, when examined independently, alcohol use had no significant association and cocaine use had a borderline significant association,” write the authors of a new study in the journal Crisis. “However, reporting both alcohol misuse and cocaine use was significantly associated with a future suicide attempt.”
For the study, researchers examined 874 men and women who went to one of eight emergency departments around the country between 2010 and 2012. The patients were participants in the Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow-up Evaluation study, led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
