Despite pandemic, US suicides dropped last year
Mike Stobbe
The Associated Press
NEW YORK – The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic – the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.
Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise. But officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.
It is hard to say exactly why suicide deaths dropped so much, but one factor may be a phenomenon seen in the early stages of wars and national disasters, some experts suggested.
WCCB Charlotte s CW
April 8, 2021
NEW YORK (AP) The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.
Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise. But officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.
It is hard to say exactly why suicide deaths dropped so much, but one factor may be a phenomenon seen in the early stages of wars and national disasters, some experts suggested.
“There’s a heroism phase in every disaster period, where we’re banding together and expressing lots of messages of support that we’re in this together,” said Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “You saw that, at least in the early months of the pandemic.”
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In this Wednesday, March 17, 2021 file photo, morning fog blankets a cemetery in West Virginia. The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
NEW YORK (AP) The number of US suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.
Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise. But officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.
US suicides fell nearly 6% in 2020 defying COVID-19 pandemic expectations
By Mike Stobbe
Researchers surveyed ‘parental burnout’ across the globe and found American parents among most exhausted
The study was put together by the university UCLouvain in Belgium and thousands of parents in 42 countries participated.
NEW YORK (AP) - The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.
Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise. But officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.
Many worried that such progress might end when COVID-19 arrived.
The pandemic sparked a wave of business closures. Millions of people were forced to stay at home, many of them alone. In surveys, more Americans reported depression, anxiety and drug and alcohol use. Adding to that dangerous mix, firearm purchases rose 85% in March 2020.
But the spring of last year actually saw the year s most dramatic decline in suicide numbers, said the CDC s Farida Ahmad, the lead author of a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that detailed the decline.
Suicide had been the nation s 10th leading cause of death, but dropped to 11th in 2020. That was mainly due to the arrival of COVID-19, which killed at least 345,000 Americans and became the nation s No. 3 killer. But the decline in suicide deaths also contributed to the ranking fall.