Suicide in male alcoholics with peptic ulcers

Eighty-seven male alcoholics with peptic ulcers and 913 without peptic ulcers were first admitted to the Department of Psychiatry of Lund, Sweden during the period 1956-1969. In the initial ratings rigidity/perfectionism, strain/tenseness, sleep disturbances, the asthenic syndrome, and heredity for alcoholism/personality disturbances/suicide were more frequent in the peptic ulcer group than in the others. Patients with peptic ulcers were more often married and less often unmarried or showed antisocial/criminal indications of antisociality/criminality. A follow-up by records was performed on January 1, 1981. Seventeen percent in the peptic ulcer group and 6% in the other group had committed suicide (p less than 0.001). Mortality (suicides excluded) was similar in the two groups as was the social adjustment among the survivors. Within the peptic ulcer group strain/tenseness was significantly related to future suicide, while operation, heredity, and rigidity/perfectionism were not.