A new study has found that alcohol is to blame for most suicide attempts by overdosing.
Wellington Hospital emergency doctor Paul Quigley says at least 80 per cent of the 127 people who turned up at his emergency department last year after taking an overdose had alcohol as "the initiating agent".
Most (56 per cent) arrived at the weekend, mainly on the "party nights" of Friday and Saturday.
"When you analyse it, where their situation started from is the two bottles of wine they had to start with, or the four bottles of wine," he told the Alcohol Advisory Council's annual conference in Manukau yesterday. . . . . .
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