Analysis of Suicide Dynamics in Link to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Covid is a virus that first appeared in China in 2019 and was quickly described as a pandemic virus by its globalized nature. The unprecedented occurrence of the virus has led to several health and restrictive government measures. The Covid-19 pandemic and health measures have been able to contribute to the deterioration of the mental health of citizens as it has already been observed during the former pandemic context (Sars covid in 2003 in China or the Spanish flu).

Among the consequences of a negative impact on mental health, investigators assume that there is an increase in transitions to the completed suicidal act. However, current studies and observations tend to note that there has been no major change in the dynamics of successful suicides during the Covid period.

However, there are biases in the studies conducted: some suicide deaths may have been hidden and not reported as such, due to several factors. For example, the measure of the evolution of suicide attempts that was most often made by the measure of the evolution of the number of hospitalizations for this reason can be a source ofestimate whether people who did this gesture were not hospitalized after a visit to the emergency room or if they gave up attending because of the pandemic. Moreover, suicide deaths are more difficult to report as such when they occur at home than after hospitalization.

It is therefore interesting to study the dynamics of suicide during this health crisis retrospectively based on data from the Strasbourg Institute of Forensic Medicine containing the census of the Alsace region, which was hit hard by the pandemic.