Suicide rates in Europe 'linked' to financial crisis
16 July BBC
The financial crisis "almost certainly" led to an increase in
suicides across Europe, health experts say.
The analysis by US and UK researchers found a rise in suicides was
recorded among working age people from 2007 to 2009 in nine of the 10
nations studied.
The increases varied between 5% and 17% for under 65s after a period
of falling suicide rates, The Lancet reported.
Researchers said investment in welfare systems was the key to keeping
rates down.
In particular, they argued supporting people back into work or having
programmes to stop them losing their jobs in the first place was more
important than giving them benefits.
The team used World Health Organization data to compare rates in the
10 countries, including the UK.
'Complete turnaround' During the period, there was a rise in
unemployment by a third.
Only Austria saw suicide rates fall. This was put down to the country
being less exposed to the financial crisis than the others.
Of the risers, Finland fared best while Greece had the worst record.
The UK saw a rise of 10% to 6.75 suicides per 100,000 people.
Dr David Stuckler, one of the researchers, said: "There was a
complete turnaround. Suicides were falling before the recession, then
started rising in nearly all European countries studied. Almost
certainly these rises are linked to the financial crisis."
And he added it was also possible there would be other health
consequences from the economic problems as the impact on heart disease
and cancer rates was not likely to be seen for many years.
'Major risk factors' However, the researchers also found that road
deaths fell during the period - a trend which was put down to the falls
in vehicle use that tend to be seen during difficult economic times.
The report comes after a BBC investigation earlier this year found
there had been a rise in anti-depressant prescribing during the
financial crisis.
Prescriptions for drugs such as Prozac rose by more than 40% over the
past four years with GPs saying more and more people were coming to them
with money worries.
Andy Bell, deputy chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health,
said. |