Citation

Wollschläger D, Schmidtmann I, Blettner M, Ernst V, Fückel S, Caranci N, Gianicolo E. Dtsch. Arztebl. Int. 2021; 118(47): 814-815.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag)

DOI

10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0365

PMID

35191372

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic may negatively affect mental health via stressors such as sustained health concerns, social isolation, unemployment, and loss of income. The risk factors for suicidality can be amplified by exceptional circumstances, and effects on suicidality have been reported in past pandemic emergency situations (1). This has raised concerns about increased suicide rates as an indirect consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic (2). Rhineland–Palatinate in Germany and Emilia–Romagna in Italy are regions that each have populations of around 4 million with similar sociodemographic and economic characteristics. However, Emilia–Romagna was hit harder than Rhineland–Palatinate by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with more than twice as many infections reported and almost five times as many deaths per 100 000 inhabitants (3). Using data from the two regions for the years 2011–2020, we investigated whether the observed suicide rates in 2020 were systematically higher than would be expected from the historical data...

Language: en