While pandemic-related suicides have already been reported in many of the hardest-hit countries, these deaths have been largely overshadowed by the high rate of fatalities linked to COVID-19....While similar cases are also being reported internationally, the risk of a pandemic-related risk in suicides remains a particular concern for the United States, since it has the largest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, suicide is already the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S., with a 35 percent rise in the suicide rate from 1999 to 2018. But a new article recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that we may be at the beginning of something far worse.
Titled "Suicide Mortality and Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Perfect Storm?" the article suggests that the unprecedented public health actions needed to contain the new pandemic, along with social distancing requirements, stay-at-home orders, and stress due to job loss, may well result in far more suicides in the years to come. Written by a team of mental health professionals led by Mark Regger of the University of Washington, the article outlines many of the economic, psychosocial, and health-associated risk factors that can be expected to increase suicide risk.
