SynthesisAlpha psychiatry2025
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Self-Harm: A Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Alpha psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a range of mental health problems, particularly self-harm. Lockdowns are the usual methods of responding to these public health emergencies. However, the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on self-harm remains poorly characterized. This study aimed to investigate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of self-harm. The findings may inform future policy development and strategies for managing pandemic-related mental health challenges. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted using several database searches: APA PsycINFO, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wan Fang. Published studies with data on the incidence of self-harm during visits to medical institutions, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, were included. The pooled risk ratio (RR) value of self-harm incidence variation before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period, expressed as the comparison of clinical institution visits before and during the pandemic, was calculated. Results: Fifteen retrospective cohort studies with observational designs involving 253,600 participants were included. The pooled RR value of self-harm incidence variation was 1.386 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.205-1.595, I Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk factor for self-harm. Therefore, special attention should be paid to individuals visiting the emergency department and the middle-aged and elderly populations. The PROSPERO Registration: This study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023373026), https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023373026.
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.