[Suicides and alcohol consumption rate].

The association between alcohol abuse and the rate of suicides is well documented. The beverage-specific effect exerted on the rate of suicides is by far less known. The purpose of this case study was to estimate the mentioned effect. Trends in the rate of suicides, as observed in Belarus in 1970-1999, were investigated with regard for changing levels of various-beverages per-capita consumption by using the time-and-series analysis. It is noteworthy, that the relation between the total quantity of consumed alcohol and the rate of suicides is far below the statistical significance. The results of this study confirm that the rate of suicides tends to be more responsive in the per-capita spirits consumption versus that of the total quantity of consumed alcohol. The revealed statistically significant relationship between the rate of suicides and the per-capita consumed vodka is the key evidence to the above conclusion.