Quality and quantity of serious violent suicide attempts during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tazio Maleitzke; Dario Zocholl; Tobias Topp; Annika Dimitrov-Discher; Elly Daus; Gabriel Reaux; Malin Zocholl; Rolf Nicolas Conze; Moritz Kolster; Philipp Weber; Florian Nima Fleckenstein; Louise Scheutz Henriksen; Ulrich Stöckle; Thomas Fuchs; Denis Gümbel; Nikolai Spranger; Alexander Ringk; Sven Märdian

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.927696

Quality and quantity of serious violent suicide attempts during the COVID-19 pandemic

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 19:13:927696. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.927696. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Tazio Maleitzke^{1

2

3}, Dario Zocholl⁴, Tobias Topp⁵, Annika Dimitrov-Discher¹, Elly Daus¹, Gabriel Reaux¹, Malin Zocholl⁶, Rolf Nicolas Conze⁶, Moritz Kolster⁷, Philipp Weber⁸, Florian Nima Fleckenstein^{3

9}, Louise Scheutz Henriksen^{10

11}, Ulrich Stöckle¹, Thomas Fuchs⁶, Denis Gümbel⁷, Nikolai Spranger⁷, Alexander Ringk⁸, Sven Märdian¹

Affiliations

¹ Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Berlin, Germany.
² Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Julius Wolff Institute, Berlin, Germany.
³ Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy, BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Biometry and Clinical Epidemiology, Berlin, Germany.
⁵ Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Orthopaedic, Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ Department of Orthopaedic, Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, Vivantes Hospital Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany.
⁷ Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, BG Klinikum Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin gGmbH, Berlin, Germany.
⁸ Center for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin, Germany.
⁹ Department of Growth and Reproduction, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁰ International Centre for Research and Training in Endocrine Disruption of Male Reproduction and Child Health (EDMaRC), Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹¹ Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

Background: While repeated shutdown and lockdown measures helped contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and self-isolation negatively impacted global mental health in 2020 and 2021. Although suicide rates did reportedly not increase during the first months of the pandemic, long-term data, and data on the quality of serious violent suicide attempts (SVSAs) are not available to date.

Materials and methods: Orthopaedic trauma patient visits to the emergency department (ED), ED trauma team activations, and SVSAs were retrospectively evaluated from January 2019 until May 2021 in four Level-I Trauma Centers in Berlin, Germany. SVSAs were assessed for suicide method, injury pattern and severity, type of treatment, and length of hospital stay.

Results: Significantly fewer orthopaedic trauma patients presented to EDs during the pandemic (n = 70,271) compared to the control (n = 84,864) period (p = 0.0017). ED trauma team activation numbers remained unchanged. SVSAs (corrected for seasonality) also remained unchanged during control (n = 138) and pandemic (n = 129) periods, and no differences were observed for suicide methods, injury patterns, or length of hospital stay.

Conclusion: Our data emphasize that a previously reported rise in psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic does not coincide with increased SVSA rates or changes in quality of SVSAs.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; death; injury; mortality; violent suicide attempts.