Citation

Davoudi M, Alipour MB, Balouchi ZK, Saghi M, Lester David. Suicide Stud. 2022; 3(4): 31-46.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, David Lester)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Natural disasters have been documented as affecting the mental health of survivors and may result in them dying by suicide. The current review identified all studies on this topic to see to what extent natural disasters result in suicides. A literature search was conducted in the Web of Knowledge, PubMed, and Scopus databases, as well as the reference list of relevant studies, using keywords including "natural disasters", and "suicide". The search led to the retrieval of 3079 studies published up to November 2020, of which 47 studies were selected for data extraction. The natural disasters included earthquakes (n=21), geomagnetic disturbances (n=5), droughts (n=3), hurricanes (n=3), dust storms (n=1), floods (n=1), and natural disasters in general (n=3). The results showed that, for most natural disasters, there are only a few studies, often only one study. However, the evidence supports a rise in suicide rates after a disaster for droughts, dust storms, hurricanes, and geomagnetic disturbances, but not for floods. For earthquakes, the majority of the studies reported a rise in suicides, at least for some groups of the population.

Natural disasters can be a source of health concerns as they affect a large number of people around the world every year. Although the rate of natural disasters varies in different regions, they are increasing in the world, causing physical, social, and mental effects for the survivors (Matsubayashi, et al., 2013; Safarpour, et al., 2020). The immediate effects of disasters on physical health are well described. For example, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular symptoms have been reported among the survivors for up to five years after the natural disaster (Krug, et al., 1998). The Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) have estimated that 1.3 million people have lost their lives in the last two decades because of natural disasters, and more than 4.4 billion people were rendered homeless, injured, or in need of urgent assistance (Jafari, et al. 2020). An earthquake and tsunami that occurred in the northern region of Japan in March 2011, caused a large number of people to go missing and more than 15,000 people to die (Matsubayashi, et al., 2013). About 1.5 million households in the United States suffer from injuries or lost property each year from floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes (Krug, et al., 1998).

The health effects of natural disasters are not limited to death and injuries, but they include psychological effects such as mental disorders, anxiety, fear, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), aggression, insomnia, and suicide...

Language: en