Citation

Calati R, Gentile G, Fornaro M, Madeddu F, Tambuzzi S, Zoja R. J. Affect. Disord. Rep. 2023; 12: e100510.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100510

PMID

36852089

PMCID

PMC9946781

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has been postulated to account for inflated rates of either suicides or homicides. Nonetheless, results are discordant, in particular concerning suicide. We aimed to perform a retrospective analysis of suicides and homicides in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy (districts of Milan and Monza Brianza), the Italian region most seriously impacted by the pandemic outbreak.

METHODS: Data were collected during the autopsies performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Milan. We presented suicides and homicides in the years 2015-2021 and compared the year 2021 to 2019, a pre-COVID-19 year.

RESULTS: Data may allow us to cautiously hypothesize a normalization of trends ("regression" to the mean effect) as time passes from the COVID-19 outbreak. LIMITATIONS: Limited number of events, in particular, homicides.

CONCLUSIONS: Recording historical reports from the same region is warranted besides the comparisons across different countries.

Language: en

Keywords

COVID-19; Homicide; Italy; Suicide