Serious suicide attempts in outpatients with multiple substance use disorders.
BACKGROUND
Suicide is a major public health concern and suicide attempts (SA) are frequent and burdensome in people suffering from substance use disorders (SUDs). In particular, serious SAs are a preoccupying form of attempt, which remain largely overlooked in these populations, especially regarding basic risk factors such as gender, addictive comorbidity and substance use patterns. Thus, we undertook a gender-specific approach to identify the risk factors for serious SAs in outpatients with multiple SUDs.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
433 Treatment-seeking outpatients were consecutively recruited in specialized care centers and reliably classified as serious, non-serious and non-suicide attempters. We also characterized lifetime exposure to SUDs, including tobacco smoking, with standardized instruments. Current medication, including psychotropic treatments were collected, which informed psychiatric diagnoses. Multinomial regression identified independent factors specifically associated with serious SAs in each gender, separately.


RESULTS
32% Participants (N=139, 47% Women and 27% Men) reported lifetime SA. There were 82 serious attempters (59% of attempters), without significant gender difference. Sedative dependence was an independent risk factor for serious SA compared to non-SA in Women and compared to non-serious SA in Men, respectively. Other risk factors included later onset of daily tobacco smoking in Men and history of psychiatric hospitalizations in Women, whose serious SA risk was conversely lower when reporting opiate use disorder or mood disorder, probably because of treatment issues.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite several study limitations, we identified subgroups for a better-tailored prevention of serious SAs among individuals with SUDs, notably highlighting the need to better prevent and treat sedative dependence.
['Icick|R|R|', 'Karsinti|E|E|', 'Lépine|J-P|JP|', 'Bloch|V|V|', 'Brousse|G|G|', 'Bellivier|F|F|', 'Vorspan|F|F|']
D000328:Adult D015897:Comorbidity D005260:Female D005602:France D006801:Humans D008297:Male D019964:Mood Disorders D010045:Outpatients D012307:Risk Factors D012737:Sex Factors D019966:Substance-Related Disorders D013406:Suicide, Attempted
Serious suicide attempt Substance use disorders Gender Benzodiazepine Comorbid addiction Sedative use disorder