at the beginning of March warned the German society for psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychosomatics and nerve medicine prior to the fatal consequences of the Corona pandemic. The psychiatry Association said the consequences of the lock downs, with almost all of Europe was looking for the spread of the Corona Virus in check. Because of the physical contact from human to human has been reduced to a Minimum.
offered The combination of forced Isolation, fear, financial Concerns and limited access to therapy, it could be for people with mental health problems unbearable, the fear at the time. At the beginning of April, there were already media reports about suicides that have been associated with the Corona-measures. An article in “Business Insider”, in the Berlin firefighters reported that they had found appropriate farewell letters for suicide victims. Therein they had mentioned an enormous fear of an infection with the Coronavirus. The official Numbers but there were not.
decrease instead of increase
But in may, the first reliable Figures in Germany show a decline in the suicide rate. At the beginning of may the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung authorities asked in seven of the German länder-to-date Figures. The countries, their suicide update statistics regularly reported by any rise in the suicide rate. On the contrary, in Nordrhein-Wesfalen were “full of suicides ended” since the beginning of the Lockdwon in comparison to the previous year, even as much as 20 percent.
“What we find is that since the corona crisis, the demand for help and advice, much lower has become offered, which is a paradox,” says the Deputy head of the German depression League, Thomas Voigt of the DW. The people sought no help, he continues, hot but , that it is good for you. “One explanation for this could be that you have to certainly be active, if you ask for advice. And that many now are not burdened so much that you create once more,” he says.
“people in depression find near”
The therapy offer is not received because of the distance regulations to maintain, but digital offers are not necessarily an Alternative: “people with Depression seek the proximity of other people. You want to have human contact and not in front of a machine for sitting,” says Voigt.
Ulrich Hegerl, head of the German depression assistance (DDH), stresses the need to distinguish between a condition of Fear and Depression. “Suicides are not free of death, but can be made to 90% in combination with a negatively distorted view of the world in consequence of depression and other psychiatric disorders. Depression, by far the most common cause for suicides, are independent diseases and not only reactions to difficult life circumstances,” says Hegerl in April, in a press release. He warned that due to the contact restrictions of your friends and relatives might not be on time, a severe crisis would recognize, to organize help.
“In any case, it is in such a way that the supply situation has deteriorated. It is known that in some cases, fewer patients show up than before, many just out of exaggerated Fears, or because you don’t believe, the practices they needed, now, is it because you treat only the corona of the patients. And many people with depression tend to be prone to feelings of guilt,” says Hegerl of the DW. And to the discussion of increase or decrease of suicide rates: “to My knowledge, the Numbers are still not sufficient, you can make any statement.”
unreported suspected
Even when depressed patients have not sought increasingly to help, so it might be, however, that the pandemic has affected the mental health. In the US, for example, the “Kaiser Family Foundation respondents” at the end of March to 1.226 adults. 45% of respondents said the pandemic had impacted on their mental health. 19% even saw a “strong impact.” Telephone pastoral care services in the United States reported in February and March there had been an increase in help seeking by 300% compared to the previous year. In this country, the Numbers of the callers increased.
In Germany, questioned the Medical University of Hannover, in the first half of April 3,545 persons. At this time, the contact most block on strictly. More than half of the study participants reported to be more irritable than before. 29% noted that they had become more aggressive and began to rise faster. A study by the Danube University of Krems was looking for a Austria representative sample of 1009 persons. The number of those who reported suffering from “depression”, had risen from 4% to 20%. The of people with anxiety symptoms from 5% to 19%.
Christoph Pieh, Professor for psychosomatic medicine, was a Co-author of this study. He is expecting a rise in the suicide rate in Austria in connection with the Coronavirus pandemic. He suspected, as yet, unreported case of the mental illness. “It has definitely been an increase of depressive disorders,” he says of the DW.
The danger of the downtrend
Hauke Wiegand, psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the University hospital in Mainz warns that all the polls and Numbers that have been published up to now, only incomplete snapshots within a short period of time. But he, too, has been found in the last few weeks, a decline in the number of patients in his clinic: significantly less patients had with Depression or anxiety, while the number of schizophrenia Patients was largely unchanged.
Wiegand refers to the time story: suicide rates, he says, compared to the DW, have increased in times of economic crisis always. Unemployment and financial hopelessness are risk factors — and it is still too early to say whether this would also occur after the Corona-pandemic again. After the financial crisis of 2008, you can see that there is rise in the USA, with each percent of the have given unemployment, a one percent increase in the suicide rate.
But Wiegand is able to recognize in the present Situation, also positive Trends: First results of a study of the Leibniz-Institute for resilience research in Mainz, Germany, would show that many people feel less stressed, he explains. “You have to work reduced hours, perhaps longer Commute to work, you will have more time with the family, this is for a larger part of the people even stress-reducing.” This applies, however, only if the job is secured.
Deutsche Welle reported cautious on the subject of suicide, since there is evidence that some forms of reporting can lead to imitation reactions. If you entertain even thoughts of suicide or in emotional distress stuck, do not hesitate to seek help. Where there is help in your country, see the Website https://www.befrienders.org/. In Germany, the telephone counseling helps you with the cost-free numbers 0800/111 0 111 and 0800/111 0 222.
author: Ben Knight (rg)
*The contribution of “Less suicides in Corona-times?” is published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
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