Research finding · August 2024
Substance use and depression often contribute to risk for suicide in suicide loss survivors
Research has demonstrated a consistent association between losing a partner to suicide and subsequent risk of suicide. However, there isn’t sufficient understanding of the mechanisms that may underlie this elevated risk. Two factors that researchers suspect may be at play are depression and substance use, as both have been shown to be prevalent after a suicide loss. It is important to understand these factors further to inform how to emotionally support individuals bereaved by suicide.
Using data from Denmark spanning 1980 to 2016, Dr. Alexandra Pitman compared 22,668 people who experienced a partner's suicide with 913,402 people whose partners died from other causes. She found that for both groups, suicide rates were very low (0.8% suicide bereaved vs. 0.4% bereaved by other causes). With regard to the role of depression, rates were similarly low, but higher among those bereaved by suicide (4.1%) compared with those bereaved by other causes (2.9%). While it appeared as if there were differences with regard to substance use, the difference between groups was not found when depression was taken into account. The findings emphasize the importance of preventing and treating depression in suicide-bereaved individuals to mitigate potential suicide risk. More research is needed to identify other contributing factors.
Citation: Pitman, A., McDonald, K., Logeswaran, Y., Lewis, G., Cerel, J., Lewis, G., & Erlangsen, A. (2024). The role of depression and use of alcohol and other drugs after partner suicide in the association between suicide bereavement and suicide: cohort study in the Danish population. Psychological medicine, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291724000448
This finding comes from an AFSP-funded study — see the grant below ↓
