States' COVID-19 policy contexts and suicide rates among US working-age adults.

ABSTRACT: Despite expectations that suicide rates would surge during the pandemic, the national suicide rate declined in the United States in 2020 before returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Explanations of the decline in suicides at the national level include a "pulling-together effect" in the face of a crisis and a shorter than expected pandemic recession. However, suicide rates and the change over time in suicide rates vary substantially across US states. At various times during the pandemic states enacted physical-distancing and economic support policies that may have affected suicide rates. We examined the association between state-level physical-distancing and economic support policy contexts and suicide rates among US adults ages 25-64 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that a

SUBMITTER: Wiemers EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11909630 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature