Suicide deaths and substance use in the Galician provinces between 2006 and 2020

Gerardo Flórez; Ashkan Espandian; Noelia Llorens; Teresa Seoane-Pillado; Pilar Saiz

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1242069

Suicide deaths and substance use in the Galician provinces between 2006 and 2020

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 14:14:1242069. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1242069. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Gerardo Flórez^{1

2}, Ashkan Espandian³, Noelia Llorens⁴, Teresa Seoane-Pillado⁵, Pilar Saiz^{2

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Addictive Treatment Unit, Ourense University Hospital, Ourense, Spain.
² Centre for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.
³ Psychiatry Service, Bierzo Hospital, Ponferrada, Spain.
⁴ Spanish Observatory of Drugs and Addictions, Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs, Spanish Ministry of Health, Madrid, Spain.
⁵ Area of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Department of Health Sciences, University of A Coruña - INIBIC, A Coruña, Spain.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
⁷ Health Research Institute of the Principality of Asturias (ISPA), Asturias, Spain.

Abstract

Background: Suicide is a serious public health problem that affects our entire country, including the Galician provinces. The aim of this research was to study the variation in completed suicide rates, between 2006 and 2020, in the different Galician provinces and their relationship with the consumption of addictive substances.

Methods: Completed suicide data from the Spanish Office for National Statistics and the Institute of Legal Medicine of Galicia were analyzed with a Joinpoint regression model to determine time trends. The relationship between the variation in completed suicide rates with sociodemographic variables obtained from the Spanish Office for National Statistics and variables related to the consumption of substances obtained from the survey on alcohol and other drugs in Spain (EDADES) of the Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs was also analyzed.

Results: The Joinpoint regression model did not reveal any point of significant change in the period studied for any Galician province. The following variables correlated positively with the variation in completed suicide rates in the Galician provinces: masculinity ratio, average age, daily alcohol consumption and daily illegal substance consumption.

Conclusion: Applying preventive strategies on the daily consumption of alcohol and illegal substances would help reduce the rates of completed suicide in the Galician provinces.

Keywords: Joinpoint regression; alcohol; completed suicide; illegal substances; preventive strategies.