Research on suicide and marital status has neglected the impact of alcohol abuse. Given that nonmarried people are more apt to abuse alcohol than married people, the often cited relationship between low marital integration and suicide may either by spurious, or it may involve a complicated interaction between the two variables. Married individuals consume less alcohol than unmarried individuals, but within marriage alcohol abuse does occur, and when it leads to family abuse it may trigger suicide. The present study explores the casual linkage between marital status, alcohol abuse and suicide at the micro level, employing data from the Epidemiological Catchment Area surveys. Logistic regression results indicate that marital status affects the odds of attempting suicide independent of indicators of alcohol abuse.
Alcohol abuse is, however, a better predictor of attempted suicide than marital status.
This pilot study evaluated the association between substance abuse outcome and putative factors in sons of alcoholic fathers. 11 were categorized as not having substance abuse problems. The fact that these preliminary findings are consistent with other literature despite marked methodologic and sample differences indicates that these putative components of resilience are robust and deserve further study towards improved substance abuse prevention in those at high risk. It has been suggested that decreased central GABAergic activity may play a role in the pathogenesis of alcoholism. Sodium valproate is a commercially available anticonvulsant that increases central GABAergic activity.