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Cannabis abuse and serious suicide attempts
Author(s) -
Beautrais Annette L.,
Joyce Peter R.,
Mulder Roger T.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1999.94811555.x
Subject(s) - cannabis , psychiatry , cannabis dependence , substance abuse , psychology , poison control , suicide prevention , suicide attempt , clinical psychology , medicine , medical emergency , cannabidiol
Aims. To compare the relationship between cannabis abuse/dependence and risk of medically serious suicide attempts in individuals making serious suicide attempts and randomly selected comparison subjects. Design. Case‐control comparison. Setting. Cases, a general hospital; controls, the local community. Participants. Cases were 302 consecutive individuals making medically serious suicide attempts; 1028 randomly selected control subjects. Measurements. DSM‐III‐R mental disorder diagnoses; measures of socio‐demographic characteristics and childhood and family experiences. Findings. Of those making serious suicide attempts, 16.2% met DSM‐III‐R criteria for cannabis abuse/dependence at the time of the attempt, compared with 1.9% of comparison subjects (OR=10.3; 95%CI, 5.95‐17.8, p 0.0001). Risks of serious suicide attempt were significantly related to a series of socio‐demographic and childhood characteristics, and to mental disorders that were co‐morbid with cannabis abuse/dependence. When the association between cannabis abuse/dependence and suicide attempt risk was controlled for socio‐demographic factors, childhood factors and concurrent psychiatric morbidity, there was a marginally significant association (OR=2.0; 95%CI, 0.97‐5.3, p 0.06) between cannabis abuse/dependence and serious suicide attempt risk. Conclusions. These results suggested that much of the association between cannabis abuse/dependence and suicide attempt risk arose because: (a) individuals who develop cannabis abuse/dependency tend to come from disadvantaged socio‐demographic and childhood backgrounds which, independently of cannabis abuse, are associated with higher risk of suicide attempt, or (b) because cannabis abuse/dependence is co‐morbid with other mental disorders which are independently associated with suicidal behaviour. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that cannabis abuse/dependence may make an independent contribution to risk of serious suicide attempt, both directly and through the possible effects of cannabis abuse on risk of other mental disorders.