Harmful alcohol consumption within university communities in the United States is a ubiquitous public health concern. Dangerous drinking has been found to negatively impact a variety of aspects of students’ lives including academic performance, physical health, mental health, and general safety. The majority of mental illnesses precipitate during or immediately before young adulthood. Alcohol use has the potential to dramatically affect the psychological health of users, with young adults being particularly vulnerable to these modulations. This study aims to examine links between alcohol use and suicidal ideation within a population of university students in the United States.
The study’s sample consists of 40,335 students from four large universities in the United States who volunteered to complete a suicide risk screening survey developed in conjunction with the National Institute of Mental Health. The universities included were the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, Stanford University, and the University of Nevada at Reno. The following measures were included in the survey: suicidal ideation and behavior (via items from the National Comorbidity Survey), alcohol use (via Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), and depressive symptoms (via Patient Health Questionnaire-2,9). The data was analyzed using T-tests, Pearson correlations, and binary logistic regressions.
Results of the analysis found increased alcohol use scores to be associated with increased likelihood of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts during both past-month and past-year time intervals (p<0.01 for all). Suicidal ideations and suicide attempts were tightly linked to depressive symptom scores. Alcohol-related problems and suicidal attempts were found to have the strongest association of all variables.
Takeaway: this study supports well-established links between suicidal behaviors and experiences of depressive symptoms, in addition to incorporating alcohol use and problems into the relationship. Interventions designed to treat alcohol use and mental health problems in college students will benefit from characterizing the relationship between problematic drinking and worsening psychological health.