Alcoholic Parents Up Children’s Suicide Risk by 85 Percent: Study

Alcoholic parents increase risk of suicide in children by 85 percent, a new study shows.

Researchers found that divorced parents up the suicidal risk by 14 percent. However, having alcoholic and divorced parents does not increase the risk of suicide attempts.

"These findings underscore the need for comprehensive client and family assessments by clinicians to identify people in particular need of early interventions," lead author Dana Alonzo, PhD, of Columbia University, said in a news release. "Individuals whose parents were divorced or abused alcohol might be more vulnerable for suicide than those from intact or nonalcoholic households. Prevention and treatment efforts need to target groups that are accurately identified as at risk."


For the study, the researchers examined data from 43,093 people 18 years or older in the 2001-2002 Department of Health and Human Services survey. Overall, 13,753 participants reported they were diagnosed with depression at some point in their life and of those, 1,073 said they had tried to commit suicide.


Twenty-five percent of those who confessed to attempting suicide said they had parents who divorced and 46 percent said one or both parents abused alcohol.


Researchers explained that children with alcoholic and divorced parents might not have more of a suicide risk because divorce may have decreased aggression at home and therefore did not contribute to a child's becoming a maladjusted adult.


"Or, it may be that children with an alcoholic parent are not as surprised when their parents split up because they have already witnessed so much conflict, so it may not lead to as much confusion and resentment as it might in a better-functioning family," Alonzo said.


The findings are published in the 'American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.'

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