Drug use and reported suicide ideation and attempt among Kosovar adolescents

Association between illegal use of substances and suicidal behavior in school students: An integrative review of empirical data

“…The methodological characteristics and the main results of the included studies are summarized in Tables and . Seventeen out of the 20 included studies were of high quality and three were of moderate quality (Afifi, Cox, & Katz, ; Arenliu, Kelmendi, Haskukal, Halimi, & Canhasi, ; Chin & Choi, ). Sample sizes ranged from 367 to 74,936 participants, and a total of 362,232 community‐based school students with a mean age of 14.24 years (minimum age = 9 years; maximum age 18 years) were assessed.…”

“…Both convenience and random sampling methods were used in the cross‐sectional studies. Only six out of the 20 studies reported separate results for males and females (Afifi et al, ; Arenliu et al, ; Chin & Choi, ; Cho, Hallfors, & Iritani, ; Epstein, & Spirito, ; Peltzer, & Pengpid, ; Swahn et al, ). Finally, three studies explored the association between suicidal behavior and age at onset of substance use (Epstein & Spirito, ; Peltzer & Pengpid, ; Swahn et al, ).…”

“…Additionally, all but one of the studies described confidence interval (Chin & Choi, ). In this regard, Afifi et al () and Arenliu et al () reported large odds ratio (OR) and very broad confidence intervals, reflecting low‐powered models that showed low‐prevalence links between substance use behaviors and suicidality, thus their research results need to be interpreted with caution. Only statistically significant adjusted scores are reported herein, as the association between IUS and suicidality is a phenomenon with a potentially high number of confounders.…”

“…Suicide attempts were 6‐7.5 times higher amongst male current cannabis users compared with male non‐users, while suicide attempts were 16 times higher in female current cannabis users compared with female non‐users [OR 95% confidence interval [CI] range: 6.17 (1.41‐15.54)–7.54(2.53–40.36)] (Afifi et al, ; Arenliu et al, ). Suicide ideation was 3.5 times higher amongst male current cannabis users compared with male non‐users [3.51 (1.51–7.91)], while suicide ideation was almost 7 times higher in female current cannabis users compared with female non‐users [6.79 (1.67–25.39)] (Chin & Choi, ).…”

“…Suicide ideation was slightly more than 2 times higher in females reporting current use of hard AIS compared with female non‐users [OR (CI): 2.34 (1.0–5.4)], while suicide attempts were also five times higher amongst female current users of hard AIS compared with female non‐users [5.03 (1.9–13.5)] (Cho et al, ). Suicide ideation was almost 5 times higher in males reporting lifetime use of amphetamine/hallucinogen/ecstasy compared with male non‐users [4.78(2.15–10.18)] (Arenliu et al, ).…”