Suicide and Mental Health During COVID-19 Assignment Sample

Pages: 11 Words: 2837

Introduction: Exploring the Relationship between Suicide and Mental Health Conditions: A Focus on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

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Suicide refers to ending the life of any individual. It is difficult to identify the exact context for the term suicide as there are different types of suicidal attempts (Turecki et al., 2019). Suicide may consider as a result of stress and thoughts that are self-destructive. Another type of suicide that is done with the help of a doctor in case of a critically sick person dying is called assisted suicide (John et al., 2020).

The following essay aims to explore and illustrate the act of suicide, its type, factors causing people to suicide, and the relationship between suicide and mental health condition (Waterman, 2020). At last, some measures are enlisted that could prevent people from doing suicide and the role of healthcare services is also outlined here.

Understanding Suicide

The term suicide is derived from the Latin word ‘suicidium’ which implies taking one’s own life. It is a self-injury behaviour with some desire to end the life of oneself which does not result in the death of a person (Gunnell et al., 2020). The different types of suicide have been discussed below.

Understanding Mental Health condition

According to the American Psychiatric Association, any change in emotion, thoughts and actions due to distress in the social and personal life of any individual.

The above-mentioned health-related issue has been picked up for this study because, in recent years, the rate of suicide and mental illness has increased due to various factors such as abuse, poverty and pandemic such as Covid-19 which has led to suicide at an increased rate (McLaughlin and Gunnell, 2020).

Overall trends in suicide

Due to the increase in the Covid-19 cases, the average suicide rate was 84.0% (pre-lockdown) and 85.4% post lockdown which is 7.3% higher than the previous period.

Source – bmj.com, 2021

The overall trend in Mental Illness

2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	Apr-20
% of Mental Health (Overall population)	16.70%	16.90%	18.20%	19%	18.90%	27.30%

From the above figures, it can be seen that with the increase in the cases for Covid-19, the rate of mental health among the population in the UK has been increased drastically. In the year 2014-15, the rate is 16.70% which has been increased to 27.30% in April 2020 (bmj.com, 2021).

Literature Search Description

Serial No.	Database	Search Terms	Number of search results	Relevant Articles	Reason for relevance
1	Google Scholar	Suicide during Covid-19	10	John, A., Pirkis, J., Gunnell, D., Appleby, L. and Morrissey, J., 2020. Trends in suicide during the covid-19 pandemic.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
2	Microsoft Academic	Suicide in Youths UK	10	Waterman, L.Z., 2020. Suicide data should include more information for analysing health inequalities. BMJ, 371.	Accurate data in the given journal
3	Google Scholar	WHO Suicide	10	Gunnell, D., Appleby, L., Arensman, E., Hawton, K., John, A., Kapur, N., Khan, M., O'Connor, R.C., Pirkis, J., Caine, E.D. and Chan, L.F., 2020. Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), pp.468-471.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
4	Google Scholar	Mental Illness	10	Druss, B.G., 2020. Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in populations with serious mental illness. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(9), pp.891-892.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
5	Google Scholar	The trend in Suicide UK	10	McLaughlin, J.C. and Gunnell, D., 2020. Suicide deaths in university students in a UK city between 2010 and 2018–Case series. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.	Accurate data along with graphical representations
6	Google Scholar	The trend in Mental Illness UK	10	Carr, M.J., Steeg, S., Webb, R.T., Kapur, N., Chew-Graham, C.A., Abel, K.M., Hope, H., Pierce, M. and Ashcroft, D.M., 2021. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care-recorded mental illness and self-harm episodes in the UK: a population-based cohort study. The Lancet Public Health, 6(2), pp.e124-e135.	Accurate data along with graphical representations
7	Google Scholar	Types of suicide UK	10	Graney, J., Hunt, I.M., Quinlivan, L., Rodway, C., Turnbull, P., Gianatsi, M., Appleby, L. and Kapur, N., 2020. Suicide risk assessment in UK mental health services: a national mixed-methods study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(12), pp.1046-1053.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
8	Microsoft Academic	Factors of suicide UK	10	Pitman, A., Stevenson, F., King, M. and Osborn, D., 2020. Self-reported patterns of use of alcohol and drugs after suicide bereavement and other sudden losses: a mixed-methods study of 1,854 young bereaved adults in the UK. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, p.1024.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
9	Microsoft Academic	Types of mental health conditions	10	Rains, L.S., Johnson, S., Barnett, P., Steere, T., Needle, J.J., Carr, S., Taylor, B.L., Bentivegna, F., Edbrooke-Childs, J., Scott, H.R. and Rees, J., 2021. Early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health care and people with mental health conditions: framework synthesis of international experiences and responses. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 56(1), pp.13-24.	PDF easily accessible
10	Google Scholar	relationship between suicide and mental Health	10	Clark, L.H., Hudson, J.L., Rapee, R.M. and Grasby, K.L., 2020. Investigating the impact of masculinity on the relationship between anxiety specific mental health literacy and mental health help-seeking in adolescent males. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, p.102292.	PDF easily accessible
11	Microsoft Academic	The mortality rate during Covid-19 due to suicide	10	McIntyre, R.S. and Lee, Y., 2020. Projected increases in suicide in Canada as a consequence of COVID-19. Psychiatry Research, 290, p.113104.	PDF easily accessible
12	National and Mental Health commission UK portal	Statistical data on Suicide rate during Covid-19	10	O'Connor, R.C., Wetherall, K., Cleare, S., McClelland, H., Melson, A.J., Niedzwiedz, C.L., O'Carroll, R.E., O'Connor, D.B., Platt, S., Scowcroft, E. and Watson, B., 2020. Mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, pp.1-8.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic
13	Google Scholar	The suicide rate in the different age group	10	Chiu, L.W., Lin, K.Y.H., Chang, C.Y.Y., Lin, W.C. and Wan, L., 2020. Increased suicide risk among patients oophorectomized following benign conditions and its association with comorbidities. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 41(2), pp.137-143.	Precise and exact content needed for the topic

Further Information on Suicide and Mental Health

Types of suicide

According to Emile Durkheim, there are different types of suicide;

Suicide related to the ego of a person which implies that any person who sees himself or herself out of the social circle and the ones who are unable to adjust with the social groups and generally feel alone (Carr et al., 2021).
Another type of suicide is taking their own life for the sake of others so that any collective motive or desire is fulfilled and this type of suicide generally referred to as Altruistic suicide (Graney et al., 2020).

Factors associated with suicide

Certain risk factors are associated with suicide is an attempt to suicide which has been made previously, another risk that is associated with any potential exposure to any suicide of friends and relatives. However, the main cause of any suicide that is being made is any violence or abuse that has happened in individual life and most importantly any mental illness such as depression in the life of any person or individual (Pitman et al., 2020).

By taking the rate of suicide and factors associated with suicide into consideration, various studies have shown that most suicide cases are because of one or other mental health problems where depression seems to be the main cause of such suicidal attempts. The next mental health condition is a bipolar disorder which has encouraged 15-20% of people to commit suicide following schizophrenia which has motivated people to commit suicide (Rains et al., 2021). As per studies and researches, there is a connection between the rates of suicide and mental health illness. However, there can be a decline in the suicide rate if proper assistance or support is given to those who are suffering from mental illness (Clark et al., 2020)

Factor affecting Mental Health condition

Confidence

The young and children should be encouraged to discover their qualities so that they are not demotivated as demotivation leads to lower mental health conditions.

Self Esteem

This is the value that we look for ourselves and any lack of these values would result in the degradation of mental health conditions.

Abuse

The individual who has been abused are at greater risk of mental health conditions (McIntyre and Lee, 2021). There can be various types of abuse such as sexual, physical or Verbal which can harm the mental health of any individual.

Family Loss

The loss of any family member can lead to serious mental health conditions such as depression. As it is difficult for person especially children to cope up with the changes in their lives caused due to loss of a family member (Pierce et al., 2020).

Difficult Behavior

When there is unhappiness among the people, it leads to difficult behavioural changes such as being abusive, violent, lying and stealing etc which is the major factor affecting the mental health of a person (O'Connor et al., 2020).

Types of mental health conditions

Several mental health conditions can give rise to the act of suicide when not properly diagnosed (Chiu et al., 2020). These areas below;

Anxiety
Disorder related to moods
Disorder related to eating and drinking
Psychological problems
Addiction and nervous problem
Depression
Disorder related to personality.

Relationship of suicide with a mental health condition

The main reason for any suicide is the mental health condition of a person. Mental health condition is the major cause of the suicide that has surfaced in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the different mental health conditions and their relationships with suicide and Mental Health are interrelated with each other (Grey et al., 2021). The same has been analyzed by taking into consideration the different Mental Health condition which motivates to suicidal thoughts.

Depression as a cause for suicide

Depression is a mental health condition where a person feels demotivated and often feels left out and these symptoms can severely affect the daily life of a person and when these people left untreated it often results in suicide (Mamun et al., 2020).

Schizophrenia as a cause of suicide

Schizophrenia often reflects the symptoms of interpreting real-life abnormally and the person having this disease have symptoms like hallucination and delusions (Ueda et al., 2020). Since there is no specific treatment for Schizophrenia, the rate of suicide attempts due to this disease have increased (O'Connor et al., 2020). However, this can be prevented by giving the patient a healthy way of life and by maintaining the symptoms properly.

Bipolar disorder as a cause of suicide

This kind of mental disorder refers to extreme depression where a person may lose his/her thinking capacity and have severe mood swings (Racine et al., 2020). And, when these patients left untreated, it may cause a negative thought about the act of suicide. To prevent this disorder, the individual must consult a professional so that the symptoms can be managed to reduce the risk of suicide (Iacobucci, 2020).

Hence from the above, it can be concluded that the suicide and the mental health conditions are interrelated as According to National Alliance on Mental Illness, 90% of people who die by suicide have shown the sign of Mental Illness while 46% have been diagnosed medically (Hill et al., 2020). Therefore, it can be concluded that Mental Illness is a major cause in people which help them with suicidal thoughts and help them to motivate attempt suicide (Shalaby and Agyapong, 2020).

Conclusion

In this summative essay, we have discussed the meaning of suicide and mental health along with the aims and objectives of the assignment such as to explore and illustrate the act of suicide, its type, factors causing people to suicide, and the relationship between suicide and mental health condition along with a precise introduction on the Suicide and Mental Health condition with a relevant reason such as an increase in the suicide and mental health in the UK due to increasing in Covid-19 cases for choosing the given topic with the help of relevant trends and statistics based on Covid-19 Pandemic. A literature search on the topic has been provided to help identify the source of information. Further, the information on the topic has been discussed such as the different types of Suicides and Mental Health condition along with the factors affecting suicide such as depression, anxiety etc. and a mental health condition such as Confidence, Abuse etc. This essay has laid focus on the relationship between suicide and mental health disorders as most of the suicide is caused due to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. This essay emphasizes the discussion based on themes and suicide and mental health conditions are analyzed based on different Mental Health conditions such as depression, Bipolar disorder and Schizophrenia and a conclusion is drawn based on the given mental health condition.

Reference

John, A., Pirkis, J., Gunnell, D., Appleby, L. and Morrissey, J., 2020. Trends in suicide during the covid-19 pandemic.
Waterman, L.Z., 2020. Suicide data should include more information for analysing health inequalities. BMJ, 371.
Gunnell, D., Appleby, L., Arensman, E., Hawton, K., John, A., Kapur, N., Khan, M., O'Connor, R.C., Pirkis, J., Caine, E.D. and Chan, L.F., 2020. Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), pp.468-471.
Druss, B.G., 2020. Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in populations with serious mental illness. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(9), pp.891-892.
McLaughlin, J.C. and Gunnell, D., 2020. Suicide deaths in university students in a UK city between 2010 and 2018–Case series. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.
Carr, M.J., Steeg, S., Webb, R.T., Kapur, N., Chew-Graham, C.A., Abel, K.M., Hope, H., Pierce, M. and Ashcroft, D.M., 2021. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care-recorded mental illness and self-harm episodes in the UK: a population-based cohort study. The Lancet Public Health, 6(2), pp.e124-e135.
Graney, J., Hunt, I.M., Quinlivan, L., Rodway, C., Turnbull, P., Gianatsi, M., Appleby, L. and Kapur, N., 2020. Suicide risk assessment in UK mental health services: a national mixed-methods study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(12), pp.1046-1053.
Pitman, A., Stevenson, F., King, M. and Osborn, D., 2020. Self-reported patterns of use of alcohol and drugs after suicide bereavement and other sudden losses: a mixed-methods study of 1,854 young bereaved adults in the UK. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, p.1024.
Rains, L.S., Johnson, S., Barnett, P., Steere, T., Needle, J.J., Carr, S., Taylor, B.L., Bentivegna, F., Edbrooke-Childs, J., Scott, H.R. and Rees, J., 2021. Early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health care and people with mental health conditions: framework synthesis of international experiences and responses. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 56(1), pp.13-24.
Clark, L.H., Hudson, J.L., Rapee, R.M. and Grasby, K.L., 2020. Investigating the impact of masculinity on the relationship between anxiety specific mental health literacy and mental health help-seeking in adolescent males. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, p.102292.
McIntyre, R.S. and Lee, Y., 2020. Projected increases in suicide in Canada as a consequence of COVID-19. Psychiatry Research, 290, p.113104.
O'Connor, R.C., Wetherall, K., Cleare, S., McClelland, H., Melson, A.J., Niedzwiedz, C.L., O'Carroll, R.E., O'Connor, D.B., Platt, S., Scowcroft, E. and Watson, B., 2020. Mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, pp.1-8.
Chiu, L.W., Lin, K.Y.H., Chang, C.Y.Y., Lin, W.C. and Wan, L., 2020. Increased suicide risk among patients oophorectomized following benign conditions and its association with comorbidities. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 41(2), pp.137-143.
Gray, B., Eaton, J., Christy, J., Duncan, J., Hanna, F. and Kasi, S., 2021. A proactive approach: Examples for integrating disaster risk reduction and mental health and psychosocial support programming. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 54, p.102051.
O'Connor, R.C., Wetherall, K., Cleare, S., McClelland, H., Melson, A.J., Niedzwiedz, C.L., O'Carroll, R.E., O'Connor, D.B., Platt, S., Scowcroft, E. and Watson, B., 2020. Mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, pp.1-8.
Iacobucci, G., 2020. Suicide rates continue to rise in England and Wales.
Shalaby, R.A.H. and Agyapong, V.I., 2020. Peer support in mental health: a literature review. JMIR Mental Health, 7(6), p.e15572.
Mamun, M.A., Bodrud-Doza, M. and Griffiths, M.D., 2020. Hospital suicide due to non-treatment by healthcare staff fearing COVID-19 infection in Bangladesh?. Asian journal of psychiatry, 54, p.102295.
Fancourt, D., Steptoe, A. and Bu, F., 2020. Trajectories of depression and anxiety during enforced isolation due to COVID-19: longitudinal analyses of 59,318 adults in the UK with and without diagnosed mental illness. medRxiv.
Ueda, M., Nordström, R. and Matsubayashi, T., 2020. Suicide and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. medRxiv.
Racine, N., Cooke, J.L., Eirich, R., Korczak, D.J., McArthur, B. and Madigan, S., 2020. Child and adolescent mental illness during COVID-19: A rapid review. Psychiatry research.
Tran, B.X., Dang, A.K., Thai, P.K., Le, H.T., Le, X.T.T., Do, T.T.T., Nguyen, T.H., Pham, H.Q., Phan, H.T., Vu, G.T. and Phung, D.T., 2020. Coverage of health information by different sources in communities: implication for COVID-19 epidemic response. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(10), p.3577.
Hill, R.M., Rufino, K., Kurian, S., Saxena, J., Saxena, K. and Williams, L., 2021. Suicide ideation and attempts in a pediatric emergency department before and during COVID-19. Paediatrics, 147(3).
Pierce, M., Hope, H., Ford, T., Hatch, S., Hotopf, M., John, A., Kontopantelis, E., Webb, R., Wessely, S., McManus, S. and Abel, K.M., 2020. Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal probability sample survey of the UK population. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(10), pp.883-892.

Essay on Suicide and Mental Health Condition Assignment Sample