Formation and course of alcoholism, features of suicidal behavior in persons who have experienced alcoholic psychosis (gender aspect)

Summary . Currently, a large number of both native and foreign literature are devoted to the issues of prevalence of alcoholism, alcoholic psychoses and peculiarities of suicidal activity of alcohol-dependent ones. Female alcoholism is formed in later than men’s, since later systematic consumption of alcoholic beverages begins. Recently, the problem of suicides among women suffering from alcoholism has become very relevant. It should be emphasized that the data on the relationship between alcoholism and suicide among women are usually underreported. The purpose of this study was to identify the features of the formation and progress of alcohol dependence and the specificity of suicidal activity among young women and men who had experienced alcoholic psychosis. Results . Men in the majority began to be alcoholized till 18 years, women — in 18-20 years. The beginning of systematic alcoholization was at a rather young age (18-20 years), among women — at a later age. The duration of the first stage of alcoholism was more often than in women, 3 years or not more than 8-9 years (p <0.05), and the duration of stage II — 5-10 years (p <0.01). The first stage of alcoholism lasted more than 4 years, but did not exceed 7 years. The duration of second stage was usually up to 3 years (p <0.01). Women more often than men have had suicide attempts. The most common ways of committing suicidal attempts among women are self-cutting, the use of drugs, falling from height. Among men, of all forms of suicidal behavior, designs prevailed, only they had suicidal intentions. Conclusions . Due to the rather rapid formation and flow of alcoholism in women, compared with men, it is necessary to conduct timely prevention of alcoholism among women of young age. Among patients with a narcological profile, autoagressive tendencies are often observed, which have certain gender differences.