Suicides from 2016 to 2020 in Finland and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Partonen, Timo; Kiviruusu, Olli; Grainger, Marjut; Suvisaari, Jaana; Eklin, Aki; Virtanen, Antti; Kauppila, Riitta · Br J Psychiatry · 2022

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative mental health outcomes in populations, but the suicide numbers in Finland have remained unchanged compared with expected levels based on the pre-pandemic period. We included all deaths from suicide verified by the official cause-of-death investigations, including forensic autopsy with analysis of forensic toxicology samples, between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020 in Finland. There was a decline in suicide incidence from 2016 to 2020 in men, and a declining tendency in suicide rates for every consecutive month during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The COVID-19 governmental policy responses do not seem to have led to an increase in suicide numbers.

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