The effects of  alcohol pricing policy on suicide rates in Russia

Introduction
There is general agreement that alcohol taxation is one of the most effective alcohol policies in reducing harmful drinking and the adverse health and social consequences associated with alcohol. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of prices of various types of alcoholic beverages on the suicide rate in Russia.

Material and methods
To examine the relationship between the independent variables (real retail prices of different types of alcoholic beverages) and dependent variables (suicide rates), a time series analysis (Spearman’s correlation analysis, linear regression) was performed using the statistical package Statistica 12.StatSoft.

Results
The results of Spearman’s correlation analysis suggest a strong negative relationship between the prices of all types of alcoholic beverages and suicide rates both among men and women.

Conclusions
This study shows an inverse relationship between the prices of alcohol and the suicide rates in Russia. These findings indicate that alcohol pricing policy is an effective population-level intervention also in terms of reducing suicide mortality rates in Russia.