Reseach of the association of suicidal behavior and sleep disorders in persons with alcohol addiction

The purpose of the work is to determine the associations of sleep disorders and subjective perception of sleep quality with suicidal behavior and depressive manifestations in individuals with alcohol dependence.

The following methods were used — a method of clinical interviewing, a psychodiagnostic method and the method of processing statistical data. We examined 128 patients with chronic alcohol dependence (100 men and 28 women) aged 18 to 55 years, the average age was 41.66±8.09 (median 41). There were used the following psychodiagnostic scales: Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale (Posner K. et al., 2007); Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS, Montgomery S.A., Asberg M., 1979); The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, Buysse D.J. et al., 1989); Insomnia Severity Index (ISI, Morin S. et al., 2011). Statistical methods: Shapiro–Wilk test, Mann–Whitney U-test, Spearman’s Rank correlation, Kruskal–Wallis test, Pearson’s chi-squared test.

Results. No correlation was found between the intensity of suicidal thoughts and sleep disturbances and sleep quality. People with suicidal ideation of insomnia have more pronounced insomnia. Associations were identified in the form of a direct correlation between sleep disorders and subjective sleep quality and the severity of depressive experiences.

Conclusions. It can be assumed that if there are any suicidal ideas regardless of the severity of these, insomnia is more pronounced. It may become an early criterion for diagnosing suicidal risk in the future. Sleep disturbances are associated with depressive symptoms and occur even when the clinical criteria for depressive disorder cannot be confirmed. Findings suggest the presence of more complex relationships of the described phenomena, which is planned to be studied in further clinical studies.