Risk factors for suicide and undetermined death among in-patient alcoholics in Scotland

Approximately 32,000 patients, representing all those discharged alive from inpatient psychiatric care for alcoholism in Scottish hospitals between 1974 and 1983, were traced for up to 10 years by means of a national record-linkage study in order to ascertain the frequency of suicide and undetermined deaths. The cumulative mortality from these causes was 1.17% at 5 years and 2.01% at 10 years. Several risk factors were investigated, using survival analysis techniques. Sex, age, social class (males only) and marital status were not found to be useful predictors, but the different secondary diagnoses recorded at discharge were associated with major variations in outcome. Attention is drawn to the prognostic importance of a secondary diagnosis of both affective disorders and personality disorders, and some implications of the findings are noted concerning attempts to construct population models linking alcoholism, demographic characteristics and suicide.