Original scientific paper
The Methods of Committing and Alcohol Intoxication of Suicides in Southwestern Croatia from 1996 to 2005
Miran Čoklo
Valter Stemberga
Dražen Cuculić
Ivan Šoša
Romana Jerković
Alan Bosnar
Abstract
Alcohol is the psychoactive substance most frequently associated with suicidal behavior.We hypothesized that the level
of alcohol intoxication and the choice of specific methods of committing suicide are related. Suicides in the Southwestern
Croatia in a 10-year period, especially regarding the method of committing and alcohol intoxication, were analyzed. Ten
various methods of committing suicide were recorded. The average blood alcohol concentration at the moment of suicide
was 0.68 g/kg with male, and 0.29 g/kg with female victims. The highest blood alcohol levels at the moment of suicide
were recorded with suicides by explosive device (with the average blood alcohol concentration of 1.71 g/kg). This especially
drastic method of suicide was rare in Croatia in a period prior to the Croatian Independence War (1991–1995), but
its incidence significantly increased during the war and in a post-war period. These victims were not chronic alcoholics,
but the excessive alcohol consumption occurred as a result of psychiatric disorders as a consequence of war stress they
suffered.
Keywords
suicide; manner; alcohol intoxication; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
34553
URI
Publication date:
1.10.2008.
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