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Some interesting findings in new JAMA paper, and good summary by Reason. Easy to believe drug OD up, hard to believe were suicides are down.
"Suicide was 11th leading cause of U.S. mortality in 2020. There was a lot of speculation last year that business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders associated with COVID-19 would cause suicide rates to spike. Now, new evidence published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests this prediction may have been wrong. In fact, the number of U.S. deaths by suicide seems to have been slightly lower in 2020 than it was in the four preceding years.
Last year saw 44,834 Americans kill themselves, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). That's down from 47,511 in 2019, 48,344 in 2018, 47,173 in 2017, and 44,965 in 2016.
We do not know from the data in question whether the number of attempted suicides changed at all last year.
It's also worth noting that another category of so-called deaths of despair—drug overdose deaths—did increase significantly in 2020.
In total, the U.S. saw 3,358,814 deaths last year—up 17.7 percent from 2019—according to the provisional data. The 2020 numbers include 345,323 deaths from COVID-19, making the novel coronavirus the new third-leading cause of death.
Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death last year, having been pushed out of the top 10 by COVID-19.
"Cause-of-death data are based on the underlying cause of death, which is the disease or condition responsible for initiating the chain of events leading to death," notes JAMA. The provisional data it reported last week are "based on currently available death certificate data from the states to the NCHS as of March 21, 2021. Final mortality data will be available approximately 11 months after the end of the data year."
The leading U.S. cause of death last year remained heart disease, with 690,882 heart disease deaths last year. This number has been slowly but steadily ticking up over the past five years, from 633,842 heart disease deaths in 2015."
https://reason.com/2021/04/05/suicides-not-up-during-pandemic-after-all/
JAMA paper:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234
Also:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778361
Some interesting findings in new JAMA paper, and good summary by Reason. Easy to believe drug OD up, hard to believe were suicides are down.
"Suicide was 11th leading cause of U.S. mortality in 2020. There was a lot of speculation last year that business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders associated with COVID-19 would cause suicide rates to spike. Now, new evidence published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests this prediction may have been wrong. In fact, the number of U.S. deaths by suicide seems to have been slightly lower in 2020 than it was in the four preceding years.
Last year saw 44,834 Americans kill themselves, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). That's down from 47,511 in 2019, 48,344 in 2018, 47,173 in 2017, and 44,965 in 2016.
We do not know from the data in question whether the number of attempted suicides changed at all last year.
It's also worth noting that another category of so-called deaths of despair—drug overdose deaths—did increase significantly in 2020.
In total, the U.S. saw 3,358,814 deaths last year—up 17.7 percent from 2019—according to the provisional data. The 2020 numbers include 345,323 deaths from COVID-19, making the novel coronavirus the new third-leading cause of death.
Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death last year, having been pushed out of the top 10 by COVID-19.
"Cause-of-death data are based on the underlying cause of death, which is the disease or condition responsible for initiating the chain of events leading to death," notes JAMA. The provisional data it reported last week are "based on currently available death certificate data from the states to the NCHS as of March 21, 2021. Final mortality data will be available approximately 11 months after the end of the data year."
The leading U.S. cause of death last year remained heart disease, with 690,882 heart disease deaths last year. This number has been slowly but steadily ticking up over the past five years, from 633,842 heart disease deaths in 2015."
https://reason.com/2021/04/05/suicides-not-up-during-pandemic-after-all/
JAMA paper:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234
Also:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778361
The epidemic no one wants to address, but so easy: exercise, eating right, not smoking, sleeping well, and vitamin D therapy (sun).
RE: suicide, I am really surprised. I am curious as to how much first-time mental health provider visits went up (or down, but I bet they went up).
The epidemic no one wants to address, but so easy: exercise, eating right, not smoking, sleeping well, and vitamin D therapy (sun).
I said same in my recent vid, elephant (fitting analogy...) in room of the fact the US is one big (no pun intended) co morbidity due to obesity, and general poor health habits.
RE: suicide, I am really surprised. I am curious as to how much first-time mental health provider visits went up (or down, but I bet they went up).
I'm wondering if the OD numbers going way up are not in fact due to suicides and the difficulty of really knowing the difference, or as they call it "so-called deaths of despair."
I suspect a lot of overlap there.
The suicide numbers are surprising to me. At work it seemed like we saw more suicides, but I have no numbers on it. Im wondering if the increase of people being home due to Covid 19 prevented many suicides of people who would have done it had their spouse/family members been at work? Many suicides are discovered when people come home from work.
The increase in OD deaths does not surprise me at all. The fentanyl pills are killing people here in Az like crazy.
The suicide numbers are surprising to me. At work it seemed like we saw more suicides, but I have no numbers on it. Im wondering if the increase of people being home due to Covid 19 prevented many suicides of people who would have done it had their spouse/family members been at work? Many suicides are discovered when people come home from work.
The increase in OD deaths does not surprise me at all. The fentanyl pills are killing people here in Az like crazy.
My thoughts per above, perhaps there's more of an overlap than they were able to account for between OD by mistake vs intent.
I'm guessing LOTS of suicides were reclassified as "covid deaths".
I’m shocked that suicide numbers are down. We saw a lot here. It seemed like more than normal. Two Firemen, also.
The overdoses were nuts. Huge spike. Like the day before a hurricane, but all year. Different presentations, too. And a lot of ODs involving moving vehicles.
Definitely no shortage of obesity and heart disease.
I'm guessing LOTS of suicides were reclassified as "covid deaths".
That makes sense. I can see why that reclassification would be encouraged by those funding / requesting the study.
On the other hand, perhaps people staying home with other people forced socialization, decreasing depression in some cases. Also, I would think suicide is generally something a person wants to do in private.
Sharing a meal with someone, some gaming with them, a little work inside or outside the house, even though they may not be your preffered company can be enough so you arent alone with time enough to despair over your troubles thinking of why and how to off yourself.
Just a thought.
I'm guessing LOTS of suicides were reclassified as "covid deaths".
It would be interesting. Somebody shoots or hangs himself, and the doctor lists the cause of death as "Covid-19. "
It would be interesting. Somebody shoots or hangs himself, and the doctor lists the cause of death as "Covid-19. "
They wouldn't pass up the "gun death", but there is a whole thread with(initially) things like alcohol poisoning and splattered over a street in a motorcycle crash getting listed as covid deaths and from the IL health head "Essentially, Dr. Ezike explained that anyone who passes away after testing positive for the virus is included in that category.
"If you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death. It means technically even if you died of a clear alternate cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it's still listed as a COVID death. So, everyone who's listed as a COVID death doesn't mean that that was the cause of the death, but they had COVID at the time of the death." Dr. Ezike outlined."
That makes sense. I can see why that reclassification would be encouraged by those funding / requesting the study.
On the other hand, perhaps people staying home with other people forced socialization, decreasing depression in some cases. Also, I would think suicide is generally something a person wants to do in private.
Sharing a meal with someone, some gaming with them, a little work inside or outside the house, even though they may not be your preffered company can be enough so you arent alone with time enough to despair over your troubles thinking of why and how to off yourself.
Just a thought.I would say it probably goes both ways. People who were home with family and people who were single but had work and social life to keep them grounded now found themselves alone
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Go look at the total deaths the past 5-10 years & compare to 2020...little to no change (per population variances) Most people would lose a bet that there would be a HUGE spike for last year due to the most deadly virus in history.
One of the guys I watch quite a bit has a fun breakdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkB1jkihGkc
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