Suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan from April 2020 to December 2021

Miharu Nakanishi; Syudo Yamasaki; Kaori Endo; Shuntaro Ando; Mai Sakai; Hatsumi Yoshii; Atsushi Nishida

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114774

Suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan from April 2020 to December 2021

Psychiatry Res. 2022 Oct:316:114774. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114774. Epub 2022 Aug 7.

Authors

Miharu Nakanishi¹, Syudo Yamasaki², Kaori Endo², Shuntaro Ando³, Mai Sakai⁴, Hatsumi Yoshii⁴, Atsushi Nishida²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan; Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Mental Health Promotion Unit, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: mnakanishi-tky@umin.ac.jp.
² Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Mental Health Promotion Unit, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.

Abstract

This study estimated the excess suicidal mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. A Poisson regression model was used to assess the association between unemployment rates, expenditure for alcohol, eating out, and suicide, from January 2008 to March 2020. The excess suicidal mortality was assessed by applying the identified model to data from April 2020 to December 2021. The number of estimated excess deaths during COVID-19 was 3397 in men and 2390 in women. COVID-19 may have caused unprecedented psychological distress among people, owing to restricted social gatherings and prolonged uncertainties.

Keywords: Alcohol; COVID-19; Japan; Suicide; Unemployment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Female
Humans
Japan / epidemiology
Male
Pandemics
Suicide* / psychology
Unemployment / psychology