European suicides spiked during economic crisis

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/08/european.suicides.spike/index.html

European suicides spiked during economic crisis
By Carina Storrs, Health.com
July 8, 2011 1:28 p.m. EDT

History shows that the suicide rate tends to rise as the economy falls, but due to a lack of solid data, researchers haven't been able to confirm whether that pattern has held during the most recent economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression.

Now, a brief analysis of 10 European countries published Thursday in the Lancet --- the first to use government data on suicide rates from the past few years -- suggests that the ongoing economic downturn may be no different, and in fact may have had a larger impact on suicide rates than expected.

The unemployment rate climbed in all the countries between 2008 and 2009, and by as many as 7.9 percentage points (to 13.7%) in the case of Lithuania. (By comparison, unemployment in the U.S. rose by about 2.5 points.)
Over the same period, the researchers found, the suicide rate increased in all but two countries and soared by as much as 25% in Ireland, from 9.3 to 11.6 suicides per 100,000 people.

The rise in suicide rates was larger than the researchers expected and exceeded those seen in earlier recessions, says the lead author, David Stuckler, Ph.D., a sociology lecturer at the University of Cambridge, in England.
"From the limited data we have, we're seeing that it's more toward the worst-case scenario."

[...]

The economic crisis in the U.S. has rivaled that in Europe, so the study begs the question whether the ongoing economic downturn has had a similar effect on suicide rates and other health measures in the U.S.

That's "what everyone is chomping at the bit to know," says Timothy Classen, Ph.D., an assistant professor of economics at Loyola University Chicago.

In April, a study in the American Journal of Public Health found that rates of suicide and unemployment in the U.S. have risen and fallen in step over the past nine decades, peaking during the Depression and dropping to all-time lows during the prosperity of the 1990s.

That study went up only to 2007, however, leaving experts to wonder about suicide rates during the current downturn. Final data from the U.S. for 2008 and later years probably won't be available for at least another year, Classen says.

But, he adds, "I would be shocked if the suicide rates didn't go up in the past couple of years."

If there's a silver lining to Stuckler's findings, it's that a drop in traffic deaths appears to have canceled out the impact of the added suicides on the overall mortality rate of the countries.

[...]

Previous research in the U.S. suggests, for instance, that investment in job-training programs for unemployed workers and extensions in unemployment benefits have a dampening effect on suicide rates.

And another study led by Stuckler found that in Finland, where there is a long tradition of such programs, suicide rates increased by little to none during the recessions of the early 90s and in the past few years.

If social and job support can mitigate the mental-health consequences of poor economies, then the U.S. may not fare well.

"The willingness to invest in public programs is much higher in Europe," Classen says.