Citation

Spittal MJ. Lancet Reg. Health West. Pac. 2022; 27: e100578.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100578

PMID

36092285

PMCID

PMC9444177

Abstract

Early projections painted a bleak picture of a suicide epidemic following the emergence of the COVID-19. This stemmed from widespread concerns that an unintended consequence of the health mandates designed to limit COVID-19 infections was deteriorating mental health and that this could lead to increases in suicides. This was amplified by poor media reporting.and by early studies forecasting high suicide rates as a consequence of changing health and economic conditions. Yet the evidence to date suggests rising suicide rates have not occurred in most countries. Rather, suicides are generally either lower than what would be expected (based on pre-pandemic trends) or are no different. The exception to this trend is Japan where suicide rates initially declined by around 14% but then began to rise. Suicide rates now appear to be higher in Japan than they were pre-pandemic for many age and sex groups.

Published in The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, Goto and colleagues focus on young people (aged 10-19 years), examining both the timing of changes in suicide rates and possible explanations for changes they observed. Using an interrupted time series design, they show that youth suicide rates began increasing in April 2020 until a peak in September, and then declined. Rates remained slightly elevated between January and April 2021 (when the study ended). Other analyses presented in the study suggest an increase in suicides of between 50% and 86% between August and November 2020 compared with pre-pandemic trends. The authors identified several factors associated with the increase in suicides including family-related concerns, mental illness, social concerns and academic concerns...

Language: en