Pubdate:82097 Source:Orange County Registernews,page Headline:Study finds killings increase in homes with drug abuse Crime:Those living with abusers or alcoholics are more likely to be murdered than those in drugfree environments. By CHRISTOPHER S.WRENThe New York Times People who do not use illegal drugs but live in households where such drugs are used are 11 times as likely to be killed as those living in drugfree homes,according to a study reported today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Killings were also 70 percent more likely among nondrinkers in households where alcoholism exist, according to the study, which examined the effect of substance abuse on homicides and suicides in three counties encompassing Seattle, Memphis and Cleveland. "Our concept of the individual at risk for violent death should be broadened to include not only the substance abuser, but also those who may be at risk because of the presence of others within the household who are substance abusers," the researchers said. The study, by researchers at the University of Washington, the University of Tenneassee, Case Western Reserve University and Emory University, found that people who mix alcohol with drugs were 16.6 times more at risk for suicide for homicide than those who abuse neither. Not only were alcoholism and drug abuse associated with more frequent suicide, the researchers reported, but homicides also increased among people who did not consume drugs or alcohol but lived with others who did. Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, the lead researcher, said the study underscored the need to confront the abuse of alcohol and drugs on medical care. "Physicians don't usually screen for substance abuse, and substance abuse has many implications, including violence," Revara said in a telephone interview from Seattle. Rivara said the study documented that alcohol and drug abusers posed a risk not just to themselves but to others in their household. Alcohol is generally recognized as a factor in killings and suicides. The researchers alluded to previous studies showing that 40 percent to 70 percent of homicide victims were found during autopsies to have had alcohol in their blood. But the potentially fatal impact of chronic substance abuse on other household members was often overlooked, the researchers said. They studied reports by medical examiners on 438 suicides and 388 homicides occurring at homes in Shelby County, Tenn.; King County, Wash., and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, during a threeto fiveyear period beginning in August 1987. The victims' proximity to alcohol or drugs was compared with that of a control group of residents of the same or similar neighborhoods. Alcohol abuse increased the risk of suicide threefold, whether or not the subject lived alone, the study said, but "nondrinking individuals who lived with others who drank were not at increased risk of suicide." The study said,"Alcohol impairs judgement,possibly causing individuals to place themselves in situations at high risk of violence." But the use of illegal drugs by those younger than 50, the study found,was associated with a higher incidence of sucide both among drug users and those who lived with them. Drug use was too infrequent to be measured in those older than 50. The link between violence and drug use,the researchers suggested,might result from "drugseeking activities,such as interaction with drug dealers and theft to obtain resources for drug purchase." The study reported that drug abuse in a home increased a woman's risk of being killed by a spouse,lover or close relative by 28 times.