ArticlePloS one2020
Google searches for suicide and suicide risk factors in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Suicide, self-harm and thoughts of suicide or self-harm in infectious disease epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Article
- Temporal relationship of suicide-related internet searches and suicide rates in Korea: A prewhitened cross-correlation analysis.PloS one · 2026Article
- Temporal Association Between ChatGPT-Generated Diarrhea Synonyms in Internet Search Queries and Emergency Department Visits for Diarrhea-Related Symptoms in South Korea: Exploratory Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Natural disasters and SARS-CoV-2: potential risk factors for exacerbating mental health conditions among veterans.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Information seeking and the expected utility of information about COVID-19 can be associated with uncertainty and related attitudes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Re-evaluating National Suicide Prevention Month: Strategic Timing and Enhanced Impact.Critical public health · 2025Article
- The effect of COVID-19 on completed suicide rate in Iran: an Interrupted Time Series study (ITS).Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Association Between School-Related Google Trends Search Volume and Suicides Among Children and Adolescents in Japan During 2016-2020: Retrospective Observational Study With a Time-Series Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Observational
- Residential mobility restrictions and adverse mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on public social life and mental health: a statistical study of google trends data from the USA.Journal of applied statistics · 2024Article
- The Psychological Impact and Suicidal Behaviour in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Four Case Reports From Oman.Cureus · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- Perceived Impact of COVID-19 Among Callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.Crisis · 2023Article
- Young people's mental and social distress in times of international crisis: evidence from helpline calls, 2019-2022.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- School closures and well-being-related topic searches on Google during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.BMC public health · 2023Article
- The Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on the Sleep Quality of Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Reactive surveillance of suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, 2020 to March 2022.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2023Article
- Pandemic grief in El Salvador: factors that predict dysfunctional grief due to a COVID-19 death among Salvadoran adults.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the COVID-19 respiratory illness, emerged in December of 2019 and has since spread globally. The dramatic lifestyle changes and stressors associated with this pandemic pose a threat to mental health and have the potential to exacerbate risk factors for suicide. We used autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to assess Google Trends data representing searches in the United States for 18 terms related to suicide and known suicide risk factors following the emergence of COVID-19. Although the relative proportion of Google searches for suicide-related queries was lower than predicted during the early pandemic period, searches for the following queries representative of financial difficulty were dramatically elevated: "I lost my job" (226%; 95%CI, 120%-333%), "laid off" (1164%; 95%CI, 395%-1932%), "unemployment" (1238%; 95%CI, 560%-1915%), and "furlough" (5717%; 95%CI, 2769%-8665%). Searches for the Disaster Distress Helpline, which was promoted as a source of help for those impacted by COVID-19, were also remarkably elevated (3021%; 95%CI, 873%-5169%). Google searches for other queries representative of help-seeking and general mental health concerns were moderately elevated. It appears that some indices of suicidality have fallen in the United States in this early stage of the pandemic, but that COVID-19 may have caused an increase in suicide risk factors that could yield long-term increases in suicidality and suicide rates.
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