Substance Use Disorders: Suicide and Self-Harm

Aims: To specify the demographic and risk factors and type of the substance use disorders most common with suicidal behaviors and self-harm.

Study Design: Observational cross-sectional research.

Place and Duration of Study: Neuropsychiatry Department and Psychiatry, Neurology and neurosurgery center, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt. The study was conducted for duration of 6 months from January 2019 to June 2019.

Methodology: This was enrolled 105 aged 18-50 years to assess the type of substance use disorders most common with suicidal behaviours and self-harm with any duration of illness. Subjects were divided into three equal groups: Group 1 included healthy control subjects with no addiction or psychiatric problems with no history suggestive of any health problems. Group 2 included patients with substance use disorders (addict group). Group 3 included psychiatric patients without substance use disorders. All patients were subjected to addiction severity index, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Suicide probability scale, Barratt's impulsiveness scale, Self-Harm diagnosis scale and the positive and negative syndrome scale.

Results: There was a significantly different in the suicide categories among the cases with and without heroin intake (p=0.038). There was a significantly positive correlation among addiction severity index (ASI) and suicide score in the addiction group.

Conclusion: The incidence of anxiety and depression among individuals with substance use disorders is notably high, particularly at severe levels. We found also positive correlations between ASI and both suicide and self-harm scores in the addiction group. Depression and anxiety are frequently co-occurring in SUD patients.