Research highlights alcohol link to suicide

Over two thirds of people who took their own lives in the past three years knew a family member or friend who had taken their own life or tried to.

The research by the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) also found the vast majority of suicides happened within 12 months of experiencing a friend or family member taking their own lives.

The foundation’s Suicide Support and Information System, to be launched today by Kathleen Lynch, the minister for mental health, looked at 190 suicides in Cork between Sept 2008 and 2009.