The development of suicide risk in people with severe mental disorders during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a claims-based cohort study.

Autor: Engels A; Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, Building W37, 20246, Hamburg, Germany. igv@uke.de., Stein J; Institute for Social Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Public Health, University Medical Center Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany., Riedel-Heller SG; Institute for Social Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Public Health, University Medical Center Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany., Konnopka C; Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, Building W37, 20246, Hamburg, Germany., König HH; Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, Building W37, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology [Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol] 2024 Jul; Vol. 59 (7), pp. 1193-1200. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 23.
DOI: 10.1007/s00127-023-02584-z
Abstrakt: Purpose: In this study, we assess how the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the suicide risk of patients with severe mental disorders in Germany.
Methods: We analyzed German health insurance claims data to compare the suicide risk of patients with severe mental disorders before and during the pandemic. We included n = 690,845 patients between October 2019 and March 2020 and n = 693,457 patients the corresponding period of the previous year and applied entropy balancing to adjust for confounding covariates. Given that the cause of death was unknown, we defined potential suicides as deaths of patients with a history of intentional self-harm whose passing could not be explained by COVID-19. Potential suicides were tracked in both cohorts over one year and compared using logistic regression.
Results: 128 potential suicides were identified in the period during and 101 before the pandemic. This corresponded to a significant increase in the risk for potential suicide of 27.4% compared to the control period (β = 0.24, z = 1.82, p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The noticeable increase in the risk for potential suicide for patients with severe pre-existing mental disorders emphasizes the call for additional efforts to prevent suicide and to help patients cope with their mental illness in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
(© 2023. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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