ArticlePsychiatry research2020
Projected increases in suicide in Canada as a consequence of COVID-19.
Article in Psychiatry research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 216 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global prevalence of self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Suicide, self-harm and suicidal ideation during COVID-19: A systematic review.Psychiatry research · 2021Pooled it
- Challenges in Feeding Children Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Systematic Review of Changes in Dietary Intake Combined with a Dietitian's Perspective.Current nutrition reports · 2021Pooled it
- Government response moderates the mental health impact of COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of depression outcomes across countries.Journal of affective disorders · 2021Pooled it
- Suicide behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A meta-analysis of 54 studies.Psychiatry research · 2021Pooled it
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: A systematic review.Journal of affective disorders · 2020Pooled it
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and suicidal behaviour: update of living systematic review.F1000Research · 2020Pooled it
- Psychological impact of an epidemic on the mental health of medical staff: a case study of mobile cabin hospitals in Beijing during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Suicides in India: A Forecasting for Immediate Investment to Save Lives.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2025Article
- Understanding Canadian experiences of suicidality during the COVID-19 pandemic: protocol of a pan-Canadian qualitative study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- The impact of COVID-19 and public health measures on homicide and suicide trends in Botswana using an interrupted time series analysis.Injury epidemiology · 2025Article
- Gender Differences in Depressive Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Results from a Clinical Sample.Maedica · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: evidence from South Korea.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Alone and under pressure: the transdiagnostic role of loneliness, stress, and psychological inflexibility in university students.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Experience at an Academic Medical Examiner's Office.Academic forensic pathology · 2024Article
- Evidence of higher suicidal ideation among young adults in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The cost of illness and burden of suicide and suicide attempts in France.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Rural suicide in Newfoundland and Labrador: A qualitative exploration of health care providers' perspectives.PloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trends and characteristics of natural and unnatural deaths in an urban Sri Lankan cohort viewed through retrospective analysis of forensic death investigations from 2019 to 2022.Osong public health and research perspectives · 2023Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Macroeconomic indicators, notably unemployment, are significant moderators of suicide. We projected the number of excess suicides in Canada as a consequence of the impact of COVID-19 on unemployment. Annual suicide mortality (2000-2018) and unemployment (2000-2019) data were derived from Statistics Canada. Time-trend regression models were used to evaluate and predict the number of excess suicides in 2020 and 2021 for two possible projection scenarios following the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) an increase in unemployment of 1.6% in 2020, 1.2% in 2021, or 2) an increase in unemployment of 10.7% in 2020, 8.9% in 2021. A percentage point increase in unemployment was associated with a 1.0% increase in suicide between 2000 and 2018. In the first scenario, the rise in unemployment rates resulted in a projected total of 418 excess suicides in 2020-2021 (suicide rate per 100,000: 11.6 in 2020). In the second scenario, the projected suicide rates per 100,000 increased to 14.0 in 2020 and 13.6 in 2021, resulting in 2114 excess suicides in 2020-2021. These results indicate that suicide prevention in the context of COVID-19-related unemployment is a critical priority. Furthermore, timely access to mental healthcare, financial provisions and social/labour support programs, as well as optimal treatment for mental disorders is urgently needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.