Study reveals drop in suicides in France during 2020 lockdowns

The Covid-19 crisis has had “contrasting effects” on the French population, estimates the National Suicide Observatory (ONS) in a report, published Tuesday, September 6, evoking a general drop in suicides during the confinements of 2020 and a differentiated evolution of suicidal gestures according to the populations.

Contrary to what was feared, the pandemic did not lead to “an immediate increase in suicidal behavior”, explains the observatory of the direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics (Drees) in this study devoted to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Suicidal gestures have even “decreased at the start of the pandemic despite an increase in anxiety-depressive disorders and sleep difficulties”writes the organization.

Deaths by suicide in the general population thus fell by 20% and 8% during the two confinements of 2020 compared to previous years, and short-stay hospitalizations for self-inflicted injuries by 10% in 2020 compared to the period. 2017-2019, he assesses.

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These figures, which still need to be consolidated, correspond to the data “collected in other countries of similar economic level”and suggest that the confinements “were able to punctually reduce the risk of suicide” thanks to “feeling of sharing a collective ordeal” or because of the “increased surveillance by relatives”.

Possible “rebound effects”

However, this decline did not continue outside of containment, because “the overall number of deaths by suicide, their distribution according to age or place of death” between the beginning of January 2020 and the end of March 2021 “do not appear to have been affected by the pandemic”continues the ONS.

Another lesson from the report: since the end of 2020, hospitalizations for self-inflicted injuries have increased significantly for “adolescent girls and young women, unlike the rest of the population”notes the observatory.

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These were affected “by the first confinement, with an increase in depressive syndromes, which did not return to pre-pandemic levels once the most acute phases had passed”he insists, referring to the “emphasis role” pre-existing psychological vulnerabilities played by Covid-19 in young people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. However, the DREES calls for a cautious interpretation of these figures due to possible “rebound effects” and some “general downward trend in suicidal behavior, observable since the 1980s”.

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The World with AFP