Sharp, sustained increases in suicides closely shadowed austerity events in Greece

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/uops-ssi012915.php

Public Release: 2-Feb-2015
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Sharp and significant increases in suicides followed select financial crisis events and austerity announcements in Greece, from the start of the country's 2008 recession to steep spending cuts in 2012, Penn Medicine researchers report in a new study published online this week in the British Medical Journal Open, along with colleagues from Greece and the United Kingdom. After one austerity-related announcement in 2011, when the government announced steep spending cuts, suicides surged by over 35 percent, an increase that was then sustained through to the end of the study in 2012.

This is the first multi-decade (from 1983 to 2012) national analysis using monthly data to link the most up-to-date suicide information in Greece to specific austerity and prosperity-related events.

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