Employment insecurity, mental health and suicide

Abstract

With the economic crisis an increase in suicidality has been reported across Europe but especially in Greece. Τhese reports hit the mass media headlines and were also included in the debate among political parties. The literature suggests that during periods of deep economic crisis, there is an increase specifically in suicides but causality remains unclear. The prevailing picture both in the scientific literature and in the mass media is that the economic crisis acts as a more or less generic risk factor on the entire population putting at risk literally anybody. Two recent studies clearly dispute it by reporting that suicides had increased several months before unemployment increased. Additionally and specifically concerning Greece, where the economic crisis is deeper and more prolonged, the detailed inspection of age and gender specific rates are not in accord with a "male gender" by "unemployment" interaction. Taking into consideration the above and since the rise in suicides also affects prospering countries without high unemployment, including Germany and Norway, another possible explanation is that the changes in the socioeconomic environment and especially in the employment conditions have overstressed vulnerable populations (e.g. mental patients) leading to the increased suicide rates. The problem is that in the majority of the literature the economic crisis/austerity is considered to be a generic risk factor affecting the entire population and subsequently generic horizontal measures are proposed. Unfortunately patients at risk to commit suicide are not considered as such; instead they are rather considered as normal healthy people from the general population who respond with suicide to generic adverse events.

Is the Association between Suicide and Unemployment Common or Different among the Post-Soviet Countries?

“…Unemployment can lead to mental fatigue, a depressive state, or psychiatric disorders, all of which can lead to suicide [ 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Our present analyses uncovered two major points regarding the features of suicide linked to unemployment in many of the post-Soviet countries: (1) the suicide rates of both males and females were significantly associated with the unemployment rate in nearly half of the 15 countries, and (2) for nearly 70% of the males in the entire set of 15 countries, there was a significant association between the suicide rate and the unemployment rate.…”

An Exploration of the Labor, Financial, and Economic Factors Related to Suicide in the Republic of Kazakhstan

“…Our literature search yielded several studies conducted in developed countries that obtained similar results [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 34 ]. Another study reported that suicides increase especially during periods of severe economic crisis [ 35 ]. Widespread economic downturn and unemployment cause personal hardships; if those hardships continue, they can lead to mental exhaustion.…”

Greek university student’s attitudes and beliefs concerning mental illness and its treatment

“…While almost one in every four people will suffer from a mental illness at some time in their lives and the overall burden of disease is above 15% of total burden (Benyamina, Blecha, & Reynaud, 2012;Bertolote & Fleischmann, 2002;Collins et al, 2011;Fountoulakis, 2016Fountoulakis, , 2017Fountoulakis & Gonda, 2017Fountoulakis et al, 2015;Gore et al, 2011;Harhay & King, 2012;O'Connor & Sheehy, 2000;Ormel et al, 2008), there is a widespread stigma related to mental illness at a global scale.…”