Less suicides if drinking age raised

RAISING the minimum legal age for drinking alcohol from 18 to 21 years can prevent suicide, a study has shown.

A New York-based adolescent psychiatrist said the Government should seriously consider raising the legal age to 21, with US research showing it reduced the suicide rate by 12%. "It should, particularly, given the very high rates of alcohol consumption and the fact that the suicide rate here is going in the opposite direction from the rest of the world," said Prof David Shaffer. He suspected that Ireland's high alcohol consumption rate was a prime suspect. He also believes the country's secularisation must have also played a role in allowing what was previously forbidden behaviour.

"I think you can see that in the relatively low rate of alcohol consumption among older people, who are still bound in some way to earlier customs." The US study showed that the suicide rate decreased by 8% among 18 to 20-year-olds and by 6% among 21 to 23-year-olds. This was because raising the legal age for drinking meant they didn't start consuming alcohol until later in life.

The Columbia University professor was a guest speaker at a conference in Dublin's Mater Hospital held to build bridges between health professionals involved in treating young people with depressive disorders and suicidal behaviour. During his presentation, Prof Shaffer showed another US study indicating that the rise in the number of doctors prescribing anti-depressants was having a significant downward influence on suicide rates. He said that the initial reaction to the increase in prescribing anti-depressants had been shock and horror, but people who were initially worried about the trend were now having second thoughts about it. "If the suicide rate has gone down since the introduction of the medications, maybe this is some evidence that they are doing good," he said. Prof Shaffer said the anti-depressants were often used as an intervention by family doctors before the young person got psychiatric help.

There would never be enough psychiatrists to treat every mentally ill patient and that was why he thought it was a very reasonable approach for doctors to initiate treatment and only refer patients to specialists when the medication failed.

Prof Shaffer also referred to a screening process in schools in 40 US states that was helping to detect young people with suicidal tendencies.

He said the basic technique was very simple a paper and pencil screen could be completed in 10 minutes. There was also a computerised version for a more detailed look. He believed that a similar screening process should "very definitely" be introduced in Irish schools in a bid to reduce the very high rate of young suicides.

The screening process, conducted with parental consent, could detect up to 20% of children who had suicidal thoughts.

It also found that only half those who had suicidal tendencies had ever told an adult and fewer had ever seen anybody for treatment.

Of those suffering from major depression, only a quarter said a responsible adult already knew about it.