Drunken women who blackout more prone to suicidal thoughts

Women who blackout after drinking alcohol, even if only once, are at greater risk of having suicidal thoughts, according to a report.

Park Eun-cheol, a professor of preventive medicine at the Yonsei University’s Medical School, and his team surveyed 42,347 Korean adults from 2007 to 2011. Their findings were released July 19.

The team used the “odds ratio,” or OR _ which considers drinking frequency, intake and the times the individual blacked out _ to measure the danger of having suicidal thoughts. It found that women who blacked out at least once are 1.63 times more likely to think about suicide. That rose to 2.16 times for women who blacked out every week. The survey also found no correlation between drinking, blackout and suicidal thoughts for men.

“If people know about such dangers of suicidal thoughts beforehand, they can take certain measures to prevent it, especially those who tend to excessively drink often,” Professor Park said.

This survey was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Preventive Medicine.