# Biggest drop in suicide rate in 40 years - 6% in 2020 amid pandemic **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 15, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084 "2021-04-15T14:48:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/21 "2021-04-15T17:05:17Z")
No, that they insisted it was happening and was being caused for a hoax by crazy liberals who hate America. Also that they didn’t care about Americans’ mental health AT ALL before this and still don’t. They just used it to make themselves sound better. If they cared about their constituents’ mental health, they would work to provide a better safety net, eliminate abusive employee conditions, increase health care access, etc. Maybe not cut pandemic monitoring funding? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/22 "2021-04-15T17:11:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Everybody knows that people are incapable of staying home for the health and safety of themselves and their families without going stark raving mad. I’m sure that thousands and thousands of suicides must have been misclassified as homicides in order to have such a low number. Not all mental health problems culminate in suicide. It’s perfectly possible that mental health problems are more widespread, yet fewer of them end up as suicides (perhaps because we’re all stuck home watching each other too closely to tie a good noose). It’s also possible that a lot of folks just increased their drug and alcohol consumption to the point of overdose instead of suicide. You’ll get tons of attention if you make cut marks or say “I’m too tired to keep living.” But people will watch you consume a fifth of whiskey every night with no reaction except “oh, he just really likes to party.” ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/23 "2021-04-15T17:26:46Z")
From the UK, an article about mental health in general during the pandemic and the narrative. > **[Has the pandemic really caused a 'tsunami' of mental health problems? |...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/09/pandemic-mental-health-problems-research-coronavirus)** > > Our research shows that there are coronavirus ‘winners’, ‘losers’ – and a lot of resilience, says clinical psychologist Richard Bentall > [@](#): > > Instead, when we use advanced statistical methods to [discover different patterns of change](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3749211), we see that the majority of the population (56.5% in the case of anxiety and depression) have been resilient, showing no evidence of mental illness at any time. These are contrasted with a small group who have been unwell throughout (6.5%), some who have deteriorated after starting with low (17%) or moderate symptoms (11.5%) and some who have shown considerable improvement in their mental health (8.5%). So, in total, about a quarter of the population is doing badly. This picture of what we might call “different slopes for different folks” does not look like a tsunami. > . . . > Because of its bleak implications, the “tsunami” narrative carries the risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our more nuanced understanding of the psychological effects of the pandemic, by contrast, has practical implications. The government can most preserve the population’s mental health by protecting people from the economic consequences of the pandemic and by providing practical support to parents of young children. When additional resources are available for mental health services, they should be directed to those who are most vulnerable, for example those with pre-existing mental health difficulties, or those who have been hospitalised because of the virus, or frontline workers. In the UK, some people with mental health conditions were worsened with the most vulnerable affected. But many in the population were resilient. As noted in the thread, the UK has a very different social safety net structure to the US, so these trends may differ in the US. But it’s notable that mental health problems in other countries were not like a “tsunami”. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/24 "2021-04-15T17:51:04Z")
I wonder whether more people have been getting enough sleep. A lot of people in the USA are chronically sleep-deprived, and some of them don’t even realize it. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/25 "2021-04-15T18:02:50Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I wonder whether more people have been getting enough sleep… There’s a study for everything, it seems. And yes, more people reported having more sleep (37%) than less sleep (17%) during the pandemic. > **[How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected sleep patterns for many US citizens?](https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210409/How-has-the-COVID-19-pandemic-affected-sleep-patterns-for-US-citizens.aspx)** > > A team of scientists recently conducted an online survey to examine the changes in sleep duration among adult US citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. > [@](#): > > In general, about 17% of the participants reported having less sleep during the pandemic, whereas about 37% reported having more sleep. An inverse correlation was observed between age and sleep duration, with older participants reporting less sleep duration. Regarding other sociodemographic factors, a positive correlation was observed between sleeping more and being female, being divorced/separated, or being single. Similarly, the participants with higher education degrees reported having more sleep. > > Regarding COVID-19-related beliefs, the participants who feared more about acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection and its severity reported having less sleep than usual. In contrast, the participants who strongly believed that COVID-19 is associated with severe symptoms reported having more sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/26 "2021-04-15T18:18:59Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I could be wrong but I think there’s a general inverse correlation between suicide and being immersed in a disaster. Suicidal inclinations erupt when one is safe but the safe life feels like a life sentence and you feel like you’re a pathetic failure for not being able to make a better life for yourself or not being sufficiently loved and included by others or for not being able to enjoy what you do have. Yes, this. Nail on the head, etc. When people have something to do, have an enemy to fight, have an occasion to which to rise, they’re probably going to be okay. The tendency towards suicide probably comes in ordinary times. Not a mental health professional or expert by any means, just a person prone to depression, from generations of people prone to depression (and suicide, and alcoholism). ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/27 "2021-04-15T18:23:24Z")
I also feel **AHunter3** makes a very good point. In addition, maybe there’s even a smidgen of “my suicide won’t register amidst all of this like it would in normal times, so better not do it now” at play here. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/28 "2021-04-15T19:28:23Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Yes, this. Nail on the head, etc. Are you saying this is a fact or that your gut instincts are in agreement? ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/29 "2021-04-15T19:54:06Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > Are you saying this is a fact or that your gut instincts are in agreement? I’m agreeing with a statement made about a possible explanation of facts cited earlier in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/30 "2021-04-15T20:40:51Z")
Sorry. “Nail on the head” usually means “precisely correct” not “I agree” hence my confusion. Eta: here’s something I looked up: > **[Increased suicide rate before and during the war in southwestern Croatia -...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12031638/)** > > Wartime conditions had a direct impact on the change of quantitative and qualitative features of suicides. > [@](#): > > **Results:** A total of 262 suicides were committed in peacetime at the rate of 16.22/100,000 inhabitants, as opposed to 340 suicides in wartime at a rate of 19.61/100,000 inhabitants. This increase in the wartime suicide rate was primarily due to the 83% increase in the number of suicide victims \<40 years of age. The number of suicides by firearms in wartime was almost fourfold the number in peacetime ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/31 "2021-04-15T21:06:30Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I wonder whether more people have been getting enough sleep. > > A lot of people in the USA are chronically sleep-deprived, and some of them don’t even realize it. It might be easier to tell when we have some post-pandemic data about the effect of increased work at home (which is conducive to getting more sleep by freeing up commuting time). ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/32 "2021-04-15T23:45:58Z")
One thing to consider: my understanding is that suicide is to some degree an opportunistic act, and that suicidal thinking is usually temporary. If you’re prevented from doing it when you’re ready to, you are something less than 100% likely to persist or try again. Some will, but many won’t. So, for instance, installing anti-jump nets on bridges that are popular spots will drive down the overall suicide rate even though other locations and methods are still available. Bringing it back to COVID — I think a lot of times, places, and methods may have been forestalled. People in shared housing had less time to themselves. A lot of tall buildings were closed to the public. Some gun stores closed. And so on. Perhaps this helped reduce the rate of suicide as well? ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/33 "2021-04-15T23:54:18Z")
That crossed my mind as well. Less chance of jumping in front of a subway train if you’re working from home. The problem is that other wealthy countries had stricter lockdowns and did not see historical drops in suicides. I still think the explanation with the fewest moving parts is that the US, similar to other wealthy nations, had little change in the real suicide rate and the apparent decrease is from stuff hidden in the overdose numbers. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/34 "2021-04-16T00:17:20Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > the apparent decrease is from stuff hidden in the overdose numbers. Hmm. But what’s the mechanism there? Fungibility in suicide method — people switching from guns to opiates? That seems unlikely, and I doubt you meant that. Or bad investigatory work by police, or sloppiness by public health agencies? I suppose that could be; there was a lot going on last year, obviously. But when I think about being tasked with classifying an overdose death as suicide or accidental (or, I guess, homicide), I have trouble seeing how we would see a trend of misdiagnosis of OD deaths that’s consistently in one direction _and_ at a much higher rate than usual. (Apparently there’s a lot of controversy about how many OD deaths are secretly suicides, but that was true before 2020.) I have a new WAG: since suicides peaked in 2018, this is at least partly reversion to the mean. Anyway, this _New York Times_ article has some analysis that wasn’t in the AP article from the OP. > **[U.S. Suicides Declined Over All in 2020 but May Have Risen Among People of...](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/health/coronavirus-suicide-cdc.html)** > > Despite dire predictions, the number of suicides fell by 5 percent over all. Still, smaller studies suggested the trends were much worse among nonwhite Americans. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/35 "2021-04-16T00:34:51Z")
There’s often a fuzzy line between some overdoses and suicide. Yes, I would bet there was a shift to “give up trying, do drugs until I die” suicide. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/36 "2021-04-16T03:40:20Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > Fungibility in suicide method — people switching from guns to opiates? That seems unlikely, and I doubt you meant that. Just to expand on what I’m thinking, it goes to opportunity like we were talking about. A lot more people had the opportunity to slowly kill themselves without people who care seeing them do it. Or, as you suggest, police just labeled a few too many overdoses as “accidental”. Have to dig into the numbers to choose between. But the high overdose numbers coupled with a record drop in suicide is just too suspicious a coincidence for me atm. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/37 "2021-04-16T05:21:16Z")
Two data points for Australia: [New South Wales](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/23/nsw-suicide-rate-falls-by-remarkable-5-in-2020-lifeline-finds) - overall reduction of 5% in suicide, even though a big increase in calls to Lifeline [the main non-governmental crisis service], and part-year finding that rate was stable. These figures are still a bit rubbery to me and are not complete year stats. [Queensland](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30435-1/fulltext#seccestitle10) - probably stable or not reliably measurable change for first 8 months of 2020. Coronial determinations of death will obviously qualify which of these will actually count, and there are possible longer term depressive effects to be picked up in coming years. Australia had \<1000 deaths from Covid in 2020 and although some of the shutdowns were pretty serious, they were neither as stern as Europe or ramshackle as the US. I suspect that the declining American figure just shows how low the low hanging fruit of social welfare is for picking in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/38 "2021-04-16T05:23:36Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > The number of suicides by firearms in wartime was almost fourfold the number in peacetime Access to means is a big factor in suicides. In cultures where firearms are uncommon or unaccessible to most civilians in peacetime, wartime provides unparalleled access to a most expedient method of suicide. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/39 "2021-04-16T05:30:50Z")
If gun sales in the US had gone down, that would have been something to give me pause – that the US could indeed be an anomaly with the drop in suicides compared to our peer nations. But gun sales were up in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084/40 "2021-04-16T07:22:00Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > One factor might be a reduction in the feeling of relative deprivation. That’s where you compare yourself to others and feel bad if you perceive others as doing better than you. If everyone is struggling, then there isn’t that differential between you and others so you don’t feel worse off in a relative sense. I think this is a good point. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Maybe the people who reacted like that are cancelled out, or more than cancelled out, by the people who found it a relief not to be having continuously to deal with others who they found it either unpleasant or hard work to be around. I think this (or a slight variation upon it) is possibly an even better point. A lot of people with depression (which is often accompanied by social or generalised anxiety) say they find ordinary tasks like just getting ready to get out of the house exhausting and a source of anxiety. And they get anxious about failing to get to work on time and failing to be well dressed and failing in front of their friends and colleagues etc. Being able to stay in their comfort zone at home could decrease all that. Oh, and hearty FU to politicians who claimed there was a significant increase in suicide due to COVID lockdowns. I like to think I’m pretty sceptical but I must admit they took me in on this one. It was stated with such confidence, and seemed so plausible, that it didn’t occur to me it might be complete BS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-drop-in-suicide-rate-in-40-years-6-in-2020-amid-pandemic/940084.md?page=3)