Letter to the Editor: Author reply to Letter to the Editor regarding ‘What happened to the predicted COVID-19-induced suicide epidemic, and why?’

Abstract

Pai and Vella, 2021) identified loneliness during lockdowns as contributing to depression in the post-lockdown period. In Victoria, where restrictions and curfews were maximally onerous, the most dramatic increase in suicides was seen in the 65+ cohort in whom loneliness is already a public health epidemic.Beyond suicides, 'deaths of despair' also appear to have risen due to pandemic lockdowns. During lockdowns, many poorer Australians who were unable to work from home and barred from normal socialising will have turned to substance use. Bottle shops remained open when most other businesses underwent forced closures. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2021), the death rate from alcohol in 2021 was the highest in 10 years. The ABS has also recorded new peaks since 2019 in drug-and alcohol-related deaths with secondary mental and behavioural disorders. In such cases, it can be almost impossible to disambiguate deliberate and accidental overdoses.We believe that more research is needed to fully gauge the scale of the serious and sustained impacts of lockdowns on mental health which have, until recently, 'flown under the research radar'. The weight of emerging evidence suggests strongly that lockdowns are a deadly policy option, especially for the most vulnerable groups in society.