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Suicide After and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico City

19 Pages Posted: 2 Jul 2021

See all articles by Guilherme Borges

Guilherme Borges

Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz - Department of Global Mental Health

José Angel Garcia

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

Jane Pirkis

University of Melbourne - Centre for Mental Health

Matthew J. Spittal

University of Melbourne - Centre for Mental Health

Oliva Lopez-Arellano

Mexico City Ministry of Health

More...

Abstract

Background: A first report on the short-term effects of COVID-19 pandemic on death by suicide, that included data from Mexico City, suggested that no increase in suicide was apparent immediately following the declaration of emergency. We followed up this initial analysis by adding longer-term suicide trends from Mexico City and by inspecting basic demographic groups.

Methods: We used an interrupted time-series analysis to model the trend in monthly suicides before COVID-19 (from Jan 1, 2010, to March 31, 2020), comparing the expected number of suicides derived from the model with the observed number of suicides in the following months of the pandemic (from April 1 to November 30, 2020).

Findings: The number of monthly suicides changed from 30·2 to 30·9. There was an increase in suicide during the first 8 months of the pandemic, with a RR of 1·74 (1·37-2·20). Most of the increase occurred beyond June 2020, when there was an increase of about 70% that was then maintained. The increase was mostly accounted for by male residents of Mexico City, regardless of their age 1·95 (1·51-2·52). Overall, there was no change in the number of female suicides but those in the older age group should be closely monitored (RR=2·00; 0·96-3·68).

Interpretation: The increase in suicides by male residents of Mexico City is worrying and reinforces the need to strengthen actions for economic development, mental health and wellbeing. As the city is widening primary health care services and interventions there is an opportunity to include suicide prevention and treatment.

Funding Information: No funding was used for this manuscript.

Declaration of Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethics Approval Statement: The Ethical Committee of the National Institute of Psychiatry cleared this work for ethical approval.

Keywords: suicide, Mexico City, COVID-19, epidemiology

Suggested Citation

Borges, Guilherme and Garcia, José Angel and Pirkis, Jane and Spittal, Matthew J. and Lopez-Arellano, Oliva, Suicide After and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico City (6/30/2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3879041 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3879041

Guilherme Borges (Contact Author)

Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz - Department of Global Mental Health ( email )

Mexico City
Mexico
+525541605334 (Phone)

José Angel Garcia

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

Circuito Tecnopolo Norte 117
Col. Tecnopolo Pocitos II
Aguascalientes, 20313
Mexico

Jane Pirkis

University of Melbourne - Centre for Mental Health ( email )

185 Pelham Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia

Matthew J. Spittal

University of Melbourne - Centre for Mental Health ( email )

185 Pelham Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia

Oliva Lopez-Arellano

Mexico City Ministry of Health

Mexico City
Mexico

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