Remaining vigilant about COVID-19 and suicide, Lancet Psychiatry

In The Lancet Psychiatry, Jane Pirkis and colleagues present the results of an interrupted time-series analysis of real-time data on suicides from 21 countries, including national data from ten countries as well as data from 25 regions across a further 11 countries. Their analysis suggests that, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 1 to July 31, 2020), rates of suicide did not increase relative to modelled estimates of the number of suicides that would have occurred in this period without the pandemic. Additionally, the results indicated that suicide rates might have decreased in some areas. Pirkis and colleagues ' findings contribute to existing understanding of the associations between suicide and national disasters, including those caused by infectious diseases. These early data on suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic are consistent with the observation that national crises can be associated with a protective effect against suicide, perhaps due to greater social cohesion.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news