Can depression or substance misuse explain the elevated suicide risk among bereaved partners of suicide victims?

Grief following a partner’s suicide is associated with an increased risk of both suicide and self-harm. However, we lack knowledge about how this elevated risk arises. This study aimed to investigate whether depression and/or alcohol and drug abuse can explain the association between a partner’s suicide and the subsequent suicide risk of the bereaved partner.

Using Danish register data from the period 1980 to 2016, N = 22,668 individuals who had lost a partner to suicide were compared with N = 913,402 individuals who had lost a partner due to other causes. Causal mediation analysis was employed to assess how much of the association could be explained by depression or substance abuse—analyzed separately.

This study found that individuals who lost a partner to suicide had a 59% higher suicide risk than those who lost a partner to other causes. A slightly increased risk of depression was observed, but a lower risk of substance abuse. All individuals who lost a partner had an increased risk of suicide, but only 2% of the elevated suicide risk could be explained by depression.

Depression contributes only modestly to the increased suicide risk among those who have lost a partner to suicide. This suggests that factors other than depression and substance abuse play an important role. Nevertheless, the results highlight the importance of detecting and treating depression among suicide-bereaved individuals to reduce their suicide risk. The study may underestimate the effect, as primary care data were not included.