Suicide rates did not increase during the pandemic, despite the dramatic increase anticipated following the outbreak of Covid-19, a new report reveals.
A new international study on the impact of Covid-19 on rates of suicide and self-harm in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) has suggested that there was either no change or a decrease in rates of suicide following the pandemic.
This is despite that fact that many people, including mental health experts, anticipated a dramatic increase in suicide rates following the outbreak of Covid-19.
The findings of the study were published recently in the journal “PLOS Global Public Health”.
Led by Dr Duleeka Knipe from the Population Health Sciences Institute at the Bristol Medical School at the University of Bristol, the research was conducted by a group of scientists from across the globe, including Stellenbosch University (SU) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
“The most robust evidence, from time-series studies, indicated either a reduction or no change in suicide and self-harm in LMICs following the pandemic,” said one of the researchers, Professor Jason Bantjes from the SAMRC and the Institute for Life Course Health Research at SU.
Bantjes added that the findings were important and raised an interesting question about why, when looking at the best available data, researchers do not find any changes in suicide rates in LMICs following the pandemic.
“This is not to say the pandemic has not caused social and psychological distress and economic hardship, but it would seem from the available evidence that this has not translated into an increase in suicidal behaviour at an aggregate population level,” he said.
This finding echoes the results of a previous study published in “The Lancet Psychiatry”, which found that suicide rates in high-income countries also remained largely unchanged or declined in the early phase of the pandemic, according to Bantjes.
He added that the most startling finding of the study is the absence of reliable suicide data from Africa.
“This is not altogether unsurprising as suicide and self-harm prevention is not considered the most important public health problem in the region, and consequently research on this issue has historically not been a priority, as is the case in high income and western countries, largely because of serious health-care resource constraints and several pressing health challenges,” Bantjes said.
The researcher said in the absence of reliable data on suicides in Africa, it is impossible to accurately assess the full impact of Covid and plan evidence-based prevention strategies on the continent.
“The lack of meaningful epidemiological suicide data from the Africa region is a long-standing serious global public health problem, but the pandemic has brought the lack of suicide research infrastructure in Africa into sharp focus,” Bantjes said.
He added that their findings need to be cautiously interpreted as they are based on data from only 12 of the 135 LMICs, because accurate real-time suicide data is not available in most LMICs.
“While the available suicide data give cause for optimism, we need to remain vigilant about possible increases in suicide rates in the future. Most of all, we need to continue to ensure psychological and social support to those who are most vulnerable, since it remains to be seen what lasting impact the pandemic will have on rates of mental illness globally,” the researcher said.
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