Journal of Mental Science (1954) 100: 451-461. doi: 10.1192/bjp.100.419.451
© 1954 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Alcoholism and Attempted Suicide

I. R. C. Batchelor, M.B., F.R.C.P.E., D.P.M., Deputy Physician Superintendent, Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders, Lecturer in Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh

ABSTRACT

The literature of the relationship of alcoholism and suicide is reviewed, and the need for further studies demonstrated.

Two hundred consecutive cases of attempted suicide admitted to a general hospital have been examined personally.

A family history of alcoholism in first-degree relatives was found in 28.5 per cent. Many of the subjects came from homes "broken" by parental alcoholism.

19.5 per cent. of the cases were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their suicidal attempt.

Forty-three (21.5 per cent.) of the cases gave a personal history of excessive drinking. The sex, ages, marital state, social class, previous adjustments and reaction-types of these individuals are detailed. Their suicidal attempts are discussed in relation to their mode, timing, accompanying insobriety, precipitants, seriousness, subsequent loss of consciousness or amnesia, and their psychopathology.

A further 16 (8 per cent.) individuals who were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their suicidal attempts, were not pathological drinkers. The role of alcohol in determining these attempts is illustrated.

The following are among the conclusions reached:

  1. Though rarely wholly or mainly the cause of a suicidal attempt, alcoholism is a significant factor in about 30 per cent. of these acts, and in men about twice as often as in women.
  2. Parental alcoholism disrupting the home, may contribute to the personality disorders which result in suicide.
  3. Alcoholism and suicide have frequently similar or identical psychopathological bases. Alcoholism may be a fractional suicide, prepare the way for suicide, or provide a substitute.
  4. Alcoholism may facilitate a suicidal attempt by releasing inhibitions: and it may also render it less effective. Such attempts, though often impulsive, are often also serious.
  5. A relatively small amount of alcohol is more potent in this than a large excess.
  6. The "chronic alcoholic" does not typically commit suicide. Sufferers from psychopathic and depressive states who repeatedly abuse alcohol, frequently attempt or commit suicide: the intermittency of their drinking may expose them more to the stress of intolerable conflicts.

Received for publication September 1, 1953.