The COVID-19 pandemic and suicides in Warsaw

The aim of this study was to analyze changes in the number of suicides, the methods of their occurrence, the age and gender structure of individuals committing suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the period before the pandemic.

The data for the study came from a manually created ledger in which deceased individuals sent to the Department and Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM) were registered. The first stage of the work required manually transcribing the ledger into an Excel program. The preliminary analysis covered all registered deceased individuals in 2019 (the year before the pandemic) and 2020 (the year of the outbreak) - n=2939. A detailed analysis was conducted on cases of suicide deaths. Statistical significance was examined using the Chi-Square test and the Proportion Test.

The overall number of suicides in 2020 was slightly higher (n=208) compared to 2019 (n=197), with the most significant increase observed among children and adolescents (age group 0-19 years) - 2019: n=6, 2020: n=14. However, these differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). A statistically significant increase in suicide deaths caused by intentional poisoning was observed (2019: n=5, 2020: n=17). During the pandemic, there was a slight increase in the number of suicides among men (2019: n=152, 2020: n=162), while the number of suicides among women remained practically stable (2019: n=45, 2020: n=46).

In the first year of the pandemic in Warsaw and the surrounding areas, no significant increase in the number of suicides was observed. However, there was a noticeable rise in the number of individuals in the youngest age group. The change in suicide numbers did not affect women. A significant shift was related to the chosen method of suicide-there was an increase in the number of intentional fatal poisonings.