Temporal trends in calls for suicide attempts to poison control centers in France during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide study

Fabrice Jollant (1, 2, 3, 4) , Ingrid Blanc-Brisset (5) , Morgane Cellier (6, 7) , Marine Ambar Akkaoui , Viet Chi Tran (8) , Jean-François Hamel (7, 6) , Marie Aude Piot (9, 10, 11) , Mikail Nourredine (12, 13) , Patrick Nisse (14) , Keith Hawton (15) , Alexis Descatha (6, 7) , Dominique Vodovar (9, 16, 17)

1 CHU Nîmes - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nîmes
2 SMSP - U1178 - Santé mentale et santé publique
3 Jena University Hospital [Jena]
4 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
5 CHU Bordeaux
6 CHU Angers - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers
7 Irset - Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail
8 LAMA - Laboratoire Analyse et de Mathématiques Appliquées
9 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
10 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
11 IMM - Institut Mutualiste de Montsouris
12 LBBE - Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - UMR 5558
13 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
14 CHRU Lille - Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire [CHU Lille]
15 University of Oxford
16 UCA Faculté Médecine - Université Côte d'Azur - Faculté de Médecine
17 OPTeN (UMR_S 1144 / U1144) - Optimisation thérapeutique en Neuropsychopharmacologie

Concerns have been raised about early vs. later impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicidal behavior. However, data remain sparse to date. We investigated all calls for intentional drug or other toxic ingestions to the eight Poison Control Centers in France between 1st January 2018 and 31st May 2022. Data were extracted from the French National Database of Poisonings. Calls during the study period were analyzed using time trends and time series analyses with SARIMA models (based on the first two years). Breakpoints were determined using Chow test. These analyses were performed together with examination of age groups (<= 11, 12-24, 25-64, >= 65 years) and gender effects when possible. Over the studied period, 66,589 calls for suicide attempts were received. Overall, there was a downward trend from 2018, which slowed down in October 2019 and was followed by an increase from November 2020. Number of calls observed during the COVID period were above what was expected. However, important differences were found according to age and gender. The increase in calls from mid-2020 was particularly observed in young females, while middle-aged adults showed a persisting decrease. An increase in older-aged people was observed from mid-2019 and persisted during the pandemic. The pandemic may therefore have exacerbated a pre-existing fragile situation in adolescents and old-aged people. This study emphasizes the rapidly evolving situation regarding suicidal behaviour during the pandemic, the possibility of age and gender differences in impact, and the value of having access to real-time information to monitor suicidal acts.

Mots clés: Attempted suicide; COVID-19; Poison Control Center; Surveillance; Age; Gender; Adolescent

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Fabrice Jollant, Ingrid Blanc-Brisset, Morgane Cellier, Marine Ambar Akkaoui, Viet Chi Tran, et al.. Temporal trends in calls for suicide attempts to poison control centers in France during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide study. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2022, ⟨10.1007/s10654-022-00907-z⟩. ⟨hal-03789193⟩