Understanding the relationship between alcohol and suicide in New Zealand

An Update from Dr Rose Crossin on her Research

The objective of my research was to quantify and characterise the relationship between alcohol and suicide in New Zealand. Two specific questions were addressed:

• How prevalent is alcohol intoxication within suicide deaths in New Zealand and what are the characteristics of suicides involving alcohol?
• Is there a causal link between alcohol misuse and suicidal ideation in a New Zealand birth cohort?

My rationale for this project was that despite a growing body of international evidence that alcohol plays a significant role in suicide, there is limited attention paid to alcohol harm reduction strategies as a means of suicide prevention. This represents a missed opportunity from a policy and health promotion perspective, whereby a significant modifiable risk factor for suicide is being overlooked.

By quantifying and characterising the relationship between alcohol and suicide in New Zealand, it was hoped that this project would provide targets for intervention, including alcohol policy, primary prevention, health promotion, and clinical intervention strategies.

The Whau Mental Health Research Foundation supported this research with a grant. This provided operational costs for the research and also enabled me to employ an Assistant Research Fellow to help with the research.

Whilst our findings for New Zealand were broadly consistent with the international literature, one of the important findings was that women in New Zealand had an equivalent risk of alcohol involving suicide, as males. This was in contrast to international studies, all of which had shown males to be at substantially higher risk.

The grant from the Foundation was integral to the success of this project and I would not have been able to conduct it without the funding.

The research findings have been really impactful, for policy makers, health advocates, and the wider public. When the studies were released they received significant media attention, which highlighted the importance of alcohol as a risk factor for suicide. The most recent draft of the National Suicide Prevention Action Plan cited this research, as part of the evidence based for change.

This project provides baseline knowledge for New Zealand about alcohol within the context of mental health and suicide, which can be built in into the future.

I felt very well supported by the Foundation and as a researcher, they were easy to work with, and had clear processes and goals.