Open Journal of Internal Medicine, 2013, 3, 30-33 OJIM http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojim.2013.32007 Published Online June 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojim/ ) Methamphetamine and male suicide in the US-Mexico border region Elsa de J. Hernández Fuentes 1 , Bernardo Ng 2* , Irma A. González Hernández 1 1 Department of Sociology, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico 2 Sun Valley Behavioral Medical Center, Imperial, USA Email: * bng@sunvalleyb.com Received 27 March 2013; revised 27 April 2013; accepted 5 May 2013 Copyright © 2013 Elsa de J. Hernández Fuentes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribu- tion License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Introduction: Studying the use of psychoactive sub- stances in completed suicide is essential in order to understand its role in the suicide generating stimuli. The most commonly reported substances are alcohol and opioids. Method: This is a retrospective study of completed suicide database of the Forensics Medical office in the city of Mexicali from 1999 to 2005. This is the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California in the US-Mexico border region. Results: Out of 288 suicides, 260 were men, and the most frequent drug found on autopsy was methamphetamine (p < 0.001). The modal victim was a young male (20 - 39 years old), employed in blue-collar jobs, lived in an urban area, found in their homes, and died by hanging. Dis- cussion: Although no causal effect can be drawn, our study results suggest that methamphetamine use may be a risk factor for suicide in this sample. Keywords: Mexican; US-Mexico Border; Dugs; Scide; Mthamphetamine 1. INTRODUCTION Toxicology plays a crucial role in studying suicide, since psychoactive substances are essential in the suicide- generating stimuli [1]. Published studies on toxicology identify alcohol as the most frequent substance in non- overdose and mixed method suicides followed by me- thadone and cocaine. Less frequent drugs include phen- cyclidine, cannabis, methamphetamine (MA), other opi- oids, antidepressants, methylendioximethamphetamine, gamma-hydroxybutiric acid, and petroleum [2-18]. Even though MA is not frequently identified in completed sui- cide, it is connected with impulsive behaviors (i.e. reck- less driving, unprotected sex, gambling, suicide attempts), and important comorbidities (i.e. HIV/HCV infection, mood and psychotic disorders) [19-22]. MA is readily available in the United States-Mexico border region (USMBR) within a complex environment of consumption, production, and across the border smug- gling [23,24]. Although drug abuse and dependence is less frequent, use of illegal substances is higher in young males (18 - 29 years) in this region than the rest of Mex- ico [25]. The USMBR refers to the 62.5 miles north/south of the international boundary. It stretches 2000 miles and encompasses 4 US states and 6 Mexican states [26]. The suicide rate has declined in the USMBR, but remains re- latively high in certain States [27]. In the US side the suicide rate is highest in Arizona and New Mexico and lowest in Texas; and is slightly higher (11.0) than the national rate (10.4). The border suicide rate in 2000 consistently exceeded the national rate for groups over 45 years old. In the Mexico side, the suicide rate increased from 2.7 in 1990 to 5.5 in 2000, higher than the national rate of 3.6. More than half of all suicides are among people aged 25 - 44 years, while this age group accounts for one-third of all suicides at the na- tional level [27,28]. We studied suicides in Mexicali, the third largest Mexican municipality in the USMBR. 2. METHOD The Autonomous University of Baja California IRB ap- proved this retrospective review of the autopsy database of all suicide victims from 1999-2005 in collaboration with the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO). Data col- lected included, sociodemographic variables (i.e. gender, age, marital status, educational level, occupation, home address, place of residence, place of birth, health cover- ge) and clinical variables (i.e. date and place of the a * Corresponding author. OPEN ACCESS