Background
The severity of suicide risk in patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with co-occurring complaints of suicidal ideation and alcohol intoxication is neither well-understood nor well-recognized by ED staff. While suicide screening has become a standard expectation in ED care, there lacks consensus on standard care practices for the evaluation and management of patients with suicidal ideation and/or attempt and alcohol intoxication.
Objective
To conduct a scoping review of the care of ED patients with suicidality and alcohol intoxication.
Methods
This is a scoping review describing the evaluation and management of ED patients with suicidality and alcohol intoxication. PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, and CINAHL were searched using relevant terms to describe this ED population. 110 total articles were found and underwent full-text review. Twenty-nine articles met criteria for inclusion.
Results
Patients with suicide-related complaints while intoxicated are less likely to receive a psychiatric evaluation or to be admitted psychiatrically. This is concerning given that alcohol use is demonstrated to be both a proximal and long-term risk factor for suicide attempt(s). Existing literature includes recommendations to evaluate patients while intoxicated and to re-evaluate when sober. To create safe plans of care for these patients, clinicians need to identify the patterns of alcohol use: alcohol use to facilitate suicide, binge drinking episodes, or alcohol use disorder. ED interventions can then build from understanding of how the alcohol use and suicidality interact. Though no specific ED-based interventions were found for this patient subpopulation, interventions shown to mitigate suicide risk and/or decrease alcohol use include: brief interventions (e.g., Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment), peer navigators, crisis safety plans, discussion about restricting access to lethal means, and/or inpatient psychiatric admission.
Conclusions
There is a lack of published guidelines, standards of care, and best practices to help consultation-liaison, emergency psychiatrists, and ED providers in the management of this population, despite overwhelming literature linking alcohol intoxication and suicide attempt/death. Further research is needed to (1) elucidate the core elements for standardized assessments and (2) develop evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes/decrease rates of intoxicated suicide completion.
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