Health and the financial crisis in Greece

The impact of fiscal austerity on suicide: On the empirics of a modern Greek tragedy

“…Since then, an increasing amount of research on the effects of financial and debt crisis, and of unemployment on suicide rates in Greece has been conducted (see, among others, Fountoulakis et al, 2013Fountoulakis et al, , 2012Rihmer et al, 2013;Kentikelenis et al, 2012;Economou et al, 2011;Kentikelenis et al, 2011;Stuckler et al, 2011Stuckler et al, , 2009. Suicides are becoming more common in Greece, and budget cuts have restricted access to health care.…”

“…However, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis it has increased markedly, with even a case of public suicide of a 77-yearold Greek pensioner shooting himself with a handgun in the head in front of Syntagma Square, one of the capital's busiest main squares near the Greek Parliament (Kitsantonis, 2012). Suicide rates in Greece and other European countries have been on a remarkable upward trend following the global recession of 2008 and the European sovereign debt crisis of 2009 (see, for instance, Kentikelenis et al, 2011;Economou et al, 2011;Kentikelenis et al, 2012;Fountoulakis et al, 2012;Karanikolos et al, 2013). This period coincided with the implementation of fiscal austerity in Greece (and in other Eurozone countries), soaring unemployment rates and negative economic growth.…”

Avrupada ekonomik kriz ve özkıyım istatistikleri

“…These concerns although reasonable, they were often exaggerated and unsupported by data and disputed or even withdrawn later (15)(16)(17)(18)(19). However, and since there is no reasonable doubt that austerity and economic crisis certainly has an impact on at least some aspects of health care, mental health is believed to be at a higher risk to be affected by them.…”

“…The experience from the Asian economic crisis of the 90s, has put a particular emphasis on the effect of rising unemployment (25,26). There are several studies published until now, suggesting a similar pattern concerning the impact of the economic crisis in European countries (7,9,(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) and the US (33) although different interpretations also exist (18,19,37,38). However, it should be noted that most of these studies on European rates analyze the suicidal rates from 2007 on and not before, and thus fail to catch the long-term trend.…”

67 Impact of economic austerity and prosperity events on suicide in greece: a 30-year interrupted time-series analysis

“…In this regard, fluctuations of suicides in Greece have been a lead topic of discussion, with numerous commentators concluding that the recent austerity measures have indeed led to increased suicides in Greece. This conclusion has, however, been appropriately met with scepticism [6][7][8] and no large-scale, systematic longitudinal analysis has yet been completed to inform the ongoing debate as to whether austerity measures have led to statistically higher suicide rates in Greece. 4 6 7 9 10 To help fill this gap, we undertook a 30-year interrupted timeseries analysis of several abrupt and highly publicised austerity-related events and the monthly occurrence of suicide across Greece.…”