Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on suicide attempts

Abstract

Summary Background In response to the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic the Austrian government issued a lockdown from 16 March to 15 May 2020. As periods of economic and emotional burden have proven to detrimentally affect people’s psychological health, healthcare officials warned that the strict measures could have a serious impact on psychological health, leading to an increase in suicide attempts. Thus, the objective was to provide evidence for this assumption. Methods All adult patients admitted to the trauma resuscitation room of the Medical University of Vienna during the lockdown period following a suicide attempt were included in this analysis, forming the study group. Suicidal patients treated during the same period in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019 were pooled to create the control group. The year 2017 was excluded because another major hospital in Vienna was partially closed due to a change in infrastructure, resulting in an increased number of severely injured patients treated at our department. As the lockdown caused a markedly decreased number of patients admitted due to other reasons than suicide the actual number was replaced with the average number of patients admitted in the relevant previous 4 years. Results By comparing the study and the control group based on this realistic estimate we revealed an increase in attempted suicides during the lockdown period (p = 0.001). Demographic, mental health-related, and injury specific patient data did not differ between the groups. Conclusion The results strongly urge for an improvement in crisis intervention and suicide prevention measures in the event of a future lockdown.

The toll of a second lockdown: A longitudinal study

“…(2020) revealed that younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced elevated suicidal ideation associated with COVID-19. During lockdown in Austria, Carlin and colleagues (2021) showd an increase in attempted suicides during the lockdown period. Given the above, E-health interventions such as the Brief Adjustment Disorder Intervention (BADI) for the treatment of ICD-11 adjustment disorder ( Eimontas et al., 2018 ), and Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) ( O'Donnell et al., 2019 ), might lessen the incidence of AjD following lockdown.…”

Public Discourse Surrounding Suicide during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Analysis of Twitter Posts over a One-Year Period

“…Moreover, during the current data collection period, human movement restrictions with varied severity were already in place in several countries to curb the spread of COVID-19 [ 51 , 52 ]. Individuals may experience psychological fatigue and depressive and suicidal thoughts as a result of the lockdowns [ 53 , 54 ]. This may explain the more salient themes identified in present research that gravitate towards COVID-19 public health measures, biopsychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health support for at-risk individuals (i.e., Themes 1, 2, and 4, respectively).…”

Coexisting Substance Use Disorder and Chronic Pain During COVID-19

“…In fact, Canadian epidemiologists projected 2,114 excess suicides in 2020-2021 related to unemployment due to COVID-19 (McIntyre & Lee, 2020). In an emergency room in Austria, the rates of suicide-related admissions tripled between 2019 and 2020 during COVID-19, and attributed to lockdowns (Carlin et al, 2021). These data highlight the need for depression assessment as well as an evaluation of risk for suicide.…”