Different Ways to Drown Out the Pain: A Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Alcohol Use.

There is a significant overlap in the motivations for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and alcohol use. Moreover, several theories would predict that more frequent alcohol use is likely associated with more NSSI engagement. Still, the size and direction of this association has not been well documented in the literature. To address this gap, the goal of this article was to conduct a meta-analysis of the relation between alcohol use and NSSI. Across 57 samples and 141,669 participants, we found that there was a significant positive association between NSSI and alcohol use, odds ratio = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [1.53, 2.07], k = 64, m = 52. Moderator analyses found that this effect was stronger for younger samples and samples with more severe alcohol use problems. These results help establish a link between NSSI and alcohol use. Implications and future directions for NSSI research and intervention are discussed. There are several reasons to think that NSSI and alcohol use are linked. No reviews or meta-analyses have been conducted. We found a significant and small effect linking greater NSSI with greater alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]