Suicides declined in 2020, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The finding on suicides is something of a surprise, given the considerable concern among many medical professionals that the isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic would lead to a rise in people killing themselves.
The same data, though, also show a large increase in drug and alcohol overdoses.
The data, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show 44,834 suicides in 2020, a drop of 5.6% from 2019, when 47,511 suicides occurred.
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During the pandemic, medical professionals have been worried about a possible rise in suicides, especially among younger people. “Across the country, we’re hearing that there are increased numbers of serious suicidal attempts and suicidal deaths,” Dr. Susan Duffy, a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Brown University, told NPR in February.
During a debate with then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, President Donald Trump warned about increased suicides.
“People are losing their jobs. They’re committing suicide. There’s depression, alcohol, drugs at a level that nobody’s ever seen before. There’s abuse, tremendous abuse. We have to open our country,” Trump said.
But early on, there were indications that suicides might not increase in 2020.
In May 2020, the Washington Examiner looked at suicides during the pandemic, finding that the two major national resources for suicide prevention, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line, had not experienced an increase in calls and texts concerning suicidal ideation at that time.
The pandemic does appear to have worsened the problem of drug- and alcohol-related deaths. Unintentional injuries increased over 19,000 in 2020, to 192,176. That is an 11.1% increase over 2019. “Increases in unintentional injury deaths in 2020 were largely driven by drug overdose deaths,” according to the JAMA article.
A rise in drug and alcohol deaths driven by the pandemic was another major concern of health professionals.
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In October, the Washington Examiner reported on the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program, a federal initiative that collects data from ambulance teams, hospitals, and the police. It found that overdose deaths increased by 18% in March 2020, compared to March 2019. April and May saw even sharper increases of 29% and 42%, respectively.
