A large meta-analysis involving more than 1.5 million participants has identified an association between energy drink consumption and suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Importantly, this does not imply that energy drinks cause suicide, but it does suggest that their use may be linked to underlying psychological or behavioural risk factors. Let’s unpack the connection between energy drinks and suicidal thoughts.
Is it about the Caffiene?
No. The researchers compared coffee drinkers to users of energy drinks. Interestingly, drinking a lot of coffee reduced the risk of suicide attempts and thinking about suicide. They defined high coffee consumption as more than 60 cups per month. That’s only two cups a day!
The authors speculated that coffee’s stimulating and mood-modulating effects might partly account for this association, although other lifestyle and behavioural factors are likely to play a role. Comparing consumers of energy drinks to coffee drinkers, they found that suicide attempts were 30% lower among coffee drinkers.
In stark contrast, even one energy drink per month pushed up the risk for suicidal thoughts and attempts. Furthermore, the energy drink effect was dose-dependent and tripled the suicide risk at high levels of energy drink consumption.
What else is in Energy Drinks?
Energy drinks contain other psychoactive ingredients, like ginseng, taurine, and guarana, and have high sugar levels. Those substances can trigger emotional changes. For instance, high sugar intake can negatively impact emotions by contributing to mood swings, irritability, anxiety, and depression. This happens because rapid sugar consumption causes blood sugar levels to spike and then crash, leading to energy fluctuations and a subsequent drop in mood. High sugar intake is associated with fluctuations in blood glucose, which can influence energy levels, mood stability, and irritability. There is also evidence that highly palatable, sugar-rich foods can engage dopaminergic reward pathways, potentially reinforcing consumption patterns over time.
Furthermore, we know that high sugar consumption reduces the diversity of the microbiota in the gut. In turn, that can trigger changes in emotions.
The Real World, Energy Drinks and Suicide
What else accounts for the link between energy drinks and suicide? It is implausible that the association between energy drinks and suicide is simply about energy drinks. Firstly, energy drink consumption is much higher in adolescents, especially in teenage males. Secondly, substance abuse is high among adolescents. Thirdly, psychiatric illness is more common in people with addictive behaviours.
In real-world settings, energy drink consumption often occurs alongside other risky behaviours, including alcohol and substance use, irregular sleep, and prolonged periods of physiological arousal followed by crash and exhaustion. These contexts may amplify emotional volatility and impair self-regulation.
Understanding Energy Drinks and Suicide
Taken together, this research suggests that high energy drink consumption may function as a red flag rather than a cause: it is more common in individuals with impaired emotional regulation, higher substance use, and greater psychosocial vulnerability. In that context, elevated suicide risk likely reflects broader patterns of dysregulation rather than the effects of energy drinks alone.
