Suicides Due to Alcohol and/or Drug Overdose

There are a number of factors that increase the likelihood a person will take his or her own life. One of these is abusing substances such as alcohol and drugs. Alcohol and drug abuse are second only to depression and other mood disorders as the most frequent risk factors for suicidal behavior. This data brief summarizes suicide deaths reported in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) due to poisoning by alcohol and/or other drug ingestion. The brief contains data from 16 states implementing NVDRS from 2005-2007.