Cause of death in relation to social and alcoholic problems among Swedish men aged 35-44 years

Suicidal behavior and alcohol abuse

Suicide is an escalating public health problem, and alcohol use has consistently been implicated in the precipitation of suicidal behavior. Alcohol abuse may lead to suicidality through disinhibition, impulsiveness and impaired judgment, but it may also be used as a means to ease the distress associated with committing an act of suicide. We reviewed evidence of the relationship between alcohol use and suicide through a search of MedLine and PsychInfo electronic databases. Multiple genetically-related intermediate phenotypes might influence the relationship between alcohol and suicide. Psychiatric disorders, including psychosis, mood disorders and anxiety disorders, as well as susceptibility to stress, might increase the risk of suicidal behavior, but may also have reciprocal influences with alcohol drinking patterns. Increased suicide risk may be heralded by social withdrawal, breakdown of social bonds, and social marginalization, which are common outcomes of untreated alcohol abuse and dependence. People with alcohol dependence or depression should be screened for other psychiatric symptoms and for suicidality. Programs for suicide prevention must take into account drinking habits and should reinforce healthy behavioral patterns.

What supports the role of alcohol as a risk factor for stroke?

For more than 30 years, clinical observations to link alcohol abuse and stroke have accumulated in several countries. Studies of general populations have indicated that the risk for stroke increases with increasing alcohol consumption. Studies of young victims of stroke where the classical risk factors of stroke are uncommon, have demonstrated that even occasional heavy drinking carries an increased risk for stroke. In particular, the increased occurrence of strokes during weekends, the very time of heavy alcohol consumption in non-alcoholics, supports this notion. Alcoholics seem to get their strokes at an earlier age than non-alcoholics. Paradoxically, the published evidence has implicated drinking in both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, which suggests that there may be more than one mechanism by which alcohol can increase the risk. Strokes seem to be precipitated during the alcohol intoxication itself rather than the following withdrawal syndrome, but the contributing mechanisms, except for bleedings caused by external violence, are unknown. Alcohol can produce fluctuations in platelet reactivity and untoward interactions with certain drugs, but it remains to be demonstrated that such effects are temporally related to the onset of ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.

Alcoholic registration and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality--a prospective study in middle aged Swedish men

The consequences of alcoholic intemperance and economic problems on CHD mortality and morbidity were studied among the participants in a large primary preventive trial. Official register data were used. Subjects registered with the Board of Social Welfare were categorised with respect to increasing load of alcoholic intemperance. Non-fatal CHD was not related to alcoholic problems. Fatal CHD, on the other hand, was strongly associated with registration for intemperance. This was especially pronounced for cases dying suddenly from CHD. A multivariate analysis was performed, controlling for smoking, systolic blood pressure and serum cholesterol, which showed that the association between intemperance and fatal CHD was independent of these factors.

Alcohol intemperance and social disability as risk factors for different causes of death

At a follow-up 7-10 years after a health screening of 50-year-old men in Uppsala, 101 of the 2322 participants and 51 of the 446 non-participants had died. The incidence was thus almost three times as high among non-participants as among participants. Registration at the Temperance Board and/or the Bureau of Social Services was 2-3 times more common among the deceased subjects than among the living irrespective of participation in the health screening. A multiple logistic analysis revealed that non-participation and both types of registration were associated with an increased risk of death. For death from neoplasm only registration at the Bureau of Social Services, and not that at the Temperance Board, was a risk factor. For ischaemic heart disease (IHD), on the other hand, registration at the Temperance Board was the strongest risk factor, the other type of registration being secondary, and non-participation in the screening was a non-significant risk factor. The importance of alcohol intemperance as a risk factor for IHD was reflected in the fact that every second subject dying a sudden death (classified as IHD death) was registered at the Temperance Board. These results indicate that alcohol intemperance entails an increased risk of developing fatal complications to IHD, and social disability may carry with it a risk of both neoplasm and, to a lesser extent, death from IHD.

A continuum of premature death. Meta-analysis of competing mortality in the psychosocially vulnerable

BACKGROUND

Suicide may be an extreme expression of liability to death of any type. If true, suicide risk factors should also increase other mortality, and, given exposure, excess risk should be higher for suicide than for other mortality.

METHODS

Of 304 publications identified in Index Medicus (1966-June 1988) by the string (suicide) and (mortality or death) and (accidental or natural), 24 reported total and cause-specific mortality associated with exposure to 16 established suicide risk factors; reference scanning yielded 122 more. These 146 publications reported on 163 cohorts (total subjects = 1179 126) mortality. Meta-analysis gave random effects standardized mortality ratios (SMR) for natural, accidental and suicidal death, stratified over the 16 risk groups.

RESULTS

Overall, SMR were 8.6 (95% CI : 7.1-10.4) for suicide, 3.4 (95% CI : 2.9-4.0) for accidental and 2.1 (95% CI : 1.9-2.3) for natural death. Compatible with the first hypothesis, in most groups, mortality of any type was raised. Supporting the second hypothesis, excesses increased from lowest for natural death to highest for suicide. This trend was most pronounced following deliberate self-harm, intermediate in substance abusers, and weakest, but present, in bereaved and low social class cohorts and reversed in smokers and epileptic people.

CONCLUSIONS

Many suicide risks apply to any type of premature death, whilst also retaining some specificity for suicide. Primary prevention, targeting such generic risk factors, will not only reduce rates of suicide but also of other types of death. Conversely, when prevention focuses on specific outcomes-such as suicide-only, other types of mortality may increase.

Alcohol and mortality among young men: longitudinal study of Swedish conscripts

The association between alcohol consumption and 15 year mortality was studied in a cohort of 49,464 Swedish conscripts, mostly aged 18-19. A strong association was found. The relative risk of death among conscripts with a high consumption of alcohol (greater than 250 g/week) was 3.0 (95% confidence interval (2.3 to 4.1) compared with those with moderate consumption (1-100 g/week). After adjustment for social background variables the relative risk was reduced to 2.1 (95% confidence interval 1.4 to 3.2). Among causes of death a strong predominance was found for violent death, suicide or probable suicide being the leading single cause and accounting for 236 (36%) of all deaths. The reported U shaped curve for total mortality was not confirmed, though when violent deaths were excluded a U shaped curve was suggested for other causes of death. These findings provide important epidemiological data on the drinking habits of young people and the consequences for mortality.

Alcohol intemperance and sudden death

Ten years after a health screening examination was offered to 50 year old men 32 of the 2322 participants and 12 of the 454 nonparticipants had died of ischaemic heart disease. Of these, 26 and 11 respectively had suffered sudden death, for which necropsy was performed. Half of the men who had died suddenly had been registered for alcohol intemperance up to 1973, which was four times the prevalence of such registrations in the general population. Registration at both the Swedish Temperance Board and the Bureau of Social Services was associated with an odds ratio of 3.74 for sudden death as compared with not being registered at either. Logistic analysis including the classical risk factors for ischaemic heart disease together with registration for alcohol intemperance and at the Bureau of Social Services showed only the two types of registration and systolic blood pressure to be independent risk factors. On the other hand, there was no overrepresentation of subjects entered in the registers among those surviving a myocardial infarction. For non-fatal myocardial infarction blood pressure and serum triglyceride concentration were significant risk factors and serum cholesterol concentration, smoking, and body mass index probable risk factors; the two types of registration were not independent risk factors. Alcohol intemperance is strongly associated with an increased risk of sudden death after myocardial infarction.

Validation of diagnoses on death certificates for male alcoholics in Stockholm

The mortality and the causes of death have been studied in a cohort consisting of 1548 male alcoholics in Stockholm. During the period 1969-1981 there were 542 cases of death in this population. The mortality rates were triple those for males in Stockholm generally. Using the official causes of death there was a highly significant excess mortality in the following diagnostic groups: Cancer in the upper digestive region, primary hepatic cancer, cirrhosis in the liver, pancreatitis, pneumonia, alcoholism and alcoholic poisoning, suicides and other causes of violent death as well as ischemic heart disease. The underlying and contributing causes of death on the death certificates were reclassified according to ICD-rules using clinical records and autopsy protocols. It was found that the underlying cause of death was incorrect in 21.8% of the cases. Important information was withheld in further 19.8%. After validation there was no longer any excess mortality in ischemic heart disease. The number of alcohol-related diagnoses, i.e. alcoholic cardiomyopathy, cirrhosis and fatty liver with alcoholism and alcoholic intoxication, was much greater. It is concluded that there is a underreporting of alcohol-related diseases and injuries which has a great influence on the reliability of death statistics.

On the relation between drinking habits and alcohol problems

In clinical practice it is important to consider the possibility of alcohol consumption as an etiologic or contributing factor for disease. Information concerning abuse might be obtained by e.g. interviews or indirectly by use of different abuse registers and/or laboratory screening tests. It was found in the present study that statements made by 95 patients with chronic low back pain on drinking habits correlated well with presence of alcohol related problems. Drinking statements thus appear to be useful, at least in well motivated individuals. In patients without alcohol problems the estimated mean daily ethanol consumption generally did not exceed 15 g. An ethanol intake exceeding 15 g per day more than one per week during the last six months was reported by about every third patient with former or present alcohol problems. Such a reported drinking pattern should make the doctor more vigilant about signs of alcohol abuse.