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Substance Abuse Related Self-inflicted Injuries: a 10-year National Trauma Data Bank Review (307913)

Joy Alvarado, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 
*Demba Fofana, University of Texas Rio Grande valley 
Sidketa Fofana, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 
Jeffrey Skubic, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 
Samuel Snyder, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 

Keywords: Suicide, Drug abuse

Suicide has been one of the top 12 leading causes of death in the US since the 1950s. And substance use has been identified as a strong risk factor for suicidal behavior. The exact correlation between substance use and self-inflicted injury in patients presenting to trauma centers is unknown. A 10-year review of the National Trauma Data Bank was performed to study the relationship between suicide and substance use. Chi-Squared and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to find statistical differences across demographic groups for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Both suicide and substance related suicide were more common in Whites than other racial groups. More than half (56.79%) of all suicidal patients tested positive for substances. The most common methods of suicide were Cut/Pierce (40.56%) and Firearm (31.26%), with over 60% of patients who attempted suicide by either of these means testing positive for substances. All suicidal methods were found to be strongly associated with substance abuse (p-value<0.001). Substance use is a modifiable risk factor for suicide. Trauma centers provide a unique opportunity for the implementation of multidisciplinary interventions.