Reckoning With the Relation Between Stressors and Suicide Attempts in a Time of Covid-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic presents a unique set of risk exposures to populations, which may lead to an increase in suicide. While large-scale traumatic events are known to increase psychological disorders, thus far the science has not shown a clear link between these events and suicide. In their paper in this issue, Elbogen and colleagues (Am J Epidemiol. 2020;(XX):XXXX–XXXX) use representative data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to show that four dimensions of financial strain—financial debt/crisis, unemployment, past homelessness, lower income—are associated with subsequent suicide attempts. There are three main learnings we may take from Elbogen et al: first, with populations facing record-breaking unemployment, economic recession, and reduced wages, we can anticipate an increase in suicide in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Second, these data show the centrality of financial stressors, marking the current moment as distinct from other disasters or large-scale trauma. Third, the data teach us that financial stressors are linked, and cumulative. In this way, the paper is a sobering harbinger of the potential effects on suicide of the collective stressors borne by the Covid-19 pandemic and other mass traumatic events that are accompanied by substantial financial stressors.