Introduction:

Psychoactive substances abuse is considered a problematic social factor due its likelihood to cause harmful, self-destructive behaviors to the subjects and the overall society. Stress in an individual's early life may also be a contributing factor to substance abuse as well as suicide attempts. There is a lack of studies examining these factors in people with substance-use disorder.

Aim: to identify the relationship between early-life stress and suicide attempts in drug-dependent adults.

Methods:

This is a predictive correlational study with a cross-sectional approach. The convenience sample consisted of 105 individuals treated at an outpatient unit for addiction treatment. The participants were assessed using the Mini-international Neuropsychiatric Interview, a Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to measure the severity of the different types of early life stress; the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation was also used. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics through univariate and multivariate logistic regression.

Results:

The analyzed sample included 33 (31.4%) individuals who attempted suicide and were significantly more likely to suffer from emotional, physical, or sexual abuse than those who had never attempted suicide (p <0,05).

Conclusions:

Different forms of early-life stress are related to attempted suicide in people with substance-use disorder. Further studies are needed to understand the effects of early-life stress on suicide attempts in drug-dependent people.