Alcohol and Suicide Among Racial/Ethnic Populations—17 States, 2005-2006
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
MMWR. 2009;58:637-641
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During 2001-2005, an estimated annual 79,646 alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) and 2.3 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) were attributed to the harmful effects of excessive alcohol use.1 An estimated 5,800 AAD and 189,667 YPLL were associated annually with suicide.1 The burden of suicide varies widely among racial and ethnic populations in the United States, and limited data are available to describe the role of alcohol in suicides in these populations. To examine the relationship between alcohol and suicide among racial/ethnic populations, CDC analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) for the 2-year period 2005-2006 (the most recent data available). This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that the overall prevalence of alcohol intoxication (i.e., blood alcohol concentration [BAC] at or above the legal limit of 0.08 g/dL) was nearly 24% among suicide decedents tested …
