Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34022657›Full record

SynthesisPsychiatry research2021

Suicide behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A meta-analysis of 54 studies.

Justin P Dubé, Martin M Smith, Simon B Sherry, Paul L Hewitt, Sherry H Stewart

Open access · greenAbstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Psychiatry research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 143 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
143citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
36.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

143 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 294 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  3. Suicide before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023
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  15. Qualitative Content Analysis of COVID-19's Role in Suicide Attempts Leading to Hospital Care.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025
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83 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Justin P DubéDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2.
Martin M SmithDepartment of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Simon B SherryDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2. Electronic address: Simon.Sherry@dal.ca.
Paul L HewittDepartment of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Sherry H StewartDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2; Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, 8th floor, Abbie J. Lane Building, 5909 Veterans' Memorial Lane, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 2E2.
Dalhousie University · CAUniversity of British Columbia · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

COVID-19, and efforts to mitigate its spread, are creating extensive mental health problems. Experts have speculated the mental, economic, behavioral, and psychosocial problems linked to the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to a rise in suicide behavior. However, a quantitative synthesis is needed to reach an overall conclusion regarding the pandemic-suicide link. In the most comprehensive test of the COVID-19-suicidality link to date, we meta-analyzed data from 308,596 participants across 54 studies. Our results suggested increased event rates for suicide ideation (10.81%), suicide attempts (4.68%), and self-harm (9.63%) during the COVID-19 pandemic when considered against event rates from pre-pandemic studies. Moderation analysis indicated younger people, women, and individuals from democratic countries are most susceptible to suicide ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers and helping professionals are advised that suicide behaviors are alarmingly common during the COVID-19 pandemic and vary based upon age, gender, and geopolitics. Strong protections from governments (e.g., implementing best practices in suicide prevention) are urgently needed to reduce suicide behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indexed as

Suicidal IdeationSuicide PreventionCOVID-19FemaleHumansMalePandemicsSARS-CoV-2Self-Injurious BehaviorSuicideSuicide, AttemptedSelf-harmSuicide attemptsSuicide ideationSuicide prevention

Identifiers

PMID34022657
PMCPMC9225823
OpenAlexW3160579471

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.