Families of men suffering from alcohol addiction: a view from the suicidology perspective

The purpose of our study was to study the autoaggressive characteristics of spouses in families where the husband suffers from alcohol addiction, as well as the identification of gender characteristics of antivital behavior. Materials and methods. We examined 125 families in which men suffered from alcohol addiction. Suicidal and non-suicidal patterns of autoaggressive behavior, as well as their predictors in the past and present, were studied in comparison with the control group consisting of 62 families where men were not addicted to alcohol. Results of the study. It was found that men who are alcohol addicted tend to implement destructive attitudes through suicidal behavior, as well as patterns of risky and victim behavior. In particular, a suicide attempt in history was detected in 32% of alcohol-addicted men, the same index for the last two years was 12%, which significantly exceeds similar indicators in the control group. 28.8% of men who suffer from alcohol addiction are subjected to physical violence, 24% are addicted to drugs, 29.6% have communicated with suicide attempters. At the same time, their wives’ autodestructive indicators are also higher than those of control group which can be called paraalcoholic autoaggression. 16% of them have a history of suicide attempts, 26.4% have suicidal ideation, 17.6% have been physically or sexually abused. When comparing the spouses themselves within the "alcoholic" families - it is clearly seen that wives are more characterized with "prosuicidal" complex of emotional states in the form of feelings of shame, guilt and hopelessness. Gender differences in the ways of realization of suicidal attempts are revealed. This allows us to talk about several different directions in the implementation of an autoaggressive radical, its distribution within an "alcoholic" family, gender characteristics, which can be used in practical narcological and suicidal work.