Abstract
Background
A significant portion of suicides are precipitated by interpersonal relationship problems.
Aims
To examine demographic and clinical correlates of any intimate partner conflicts (IPC) and other interpersonal conflicts (OPC) as suicide precipitants.
Methods
We analyzed data on 92,805 (72,628 male; 20,177 female) adult suicide decedents from the 2017 to 2019 U.S. National Violent Death Reporting System, using multinomial and binary logistic regression models. We included case examples from coroners/medical examiner (CME) and law enforcement (LE) agency reports.
Results
Of all decedents, 23.6% had IPC and 8.0% had OPC as a suicide precipitant. Compared to those without any relationship conflict, those who had IPC or OPC were younger and more likely to have had previous suicide attempt(s), alcohol/other substance use problems, and job/finance/housing and legal problems. Compared to those with OPC, those with IPC were more likely to be male and Hispanic and had higher odds of previous suicide attempt, depression diagnosis, alcohol problems, and more acute crises. CME/LE reports showed distress of divorce/break-up, other life stressors, prior suicide attempt(s), alcohol/other substance involvement, and/or loss of family support.
Conclusions
Access to behavioral health treatment for those at risk of suicide in the face of IPC or OPC is essential for suicide prevention.
Acknowledgments
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) administers the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) in conjunction with participating NVDRS states. CDC provided the NVDRS Restricted Access Data used in this study to the authors. Study findings and conclusions are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC or of the participating NVDRS states.
Ethics statement
Ethical approval for this study by the University of Texas at Austin’s Institutional Review Board was not necessary because this study was based on de-identified decedent data. Informed consent procedure was not necessary, either, because the data pertained to decedents.
Author contributions
All three authors made substantial contributions and approved the final version. NGC and BYC did the literature review. NGC conducted statistical analyses, and CNM provided statistical consultation. NGC and BYC drafted the paper, and all three edited the final version.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).