Another key observation is that MLDA was not associated with suicide or homicide rates for women born between 1949 and 1959, but there was a substantial association between MLDA and both outcomes for women born between 1960 and 1972 (Table 3). Multiple authors have documented a “closing gender gap” in alcohol use disorders and related problems in recent decades (Greenfield et al., 2003; Holdcraft and Iacono, 2002; Keyes et al., 2008). This trend may have started with women born after World-War II, with increases in alcohol dependence particularly noticeable among women born in the 1960s and beyond (Grucza et al., 2008). It may be that excessive drinking was simply not part of the culture for women born in earlier years of the cohorts examined here, and that changing cultural norms may be a key contributor to MLDA-associated suicide and homicide risk observed for more recent birth years. In any event, the fact that MLDA effects were not the same for all birth years indicates that the lower MLDA alone does not result in elevated suicide and homicide risk, but that
