Modeling Suicidality Risks and Understanding the Phenomenon of Suicidality Under the Loupe of Pandemic Context: National Findings of the COMET-G Study in the Russian Population

Abstract

Objectives. Suicidality is a complex and vulnerable clinical phenomenon which should be explained via biopsychosocial paradigm and in relationship with a variety of country-specific factors. Data on suicides in Russian population are inconsistent (from 11.7 up to 25.1 per 100,000), whereas the population suicidality risks have not been investigated in detail. Changes in suicidality in response to the multifactorial influence of COVID-19 pandemic provide the basis to learn more about this mental health indicator at the national level.
 Material and methods. The current study is a part of the COMET-G international project (40 countries, n=55589), which represents an analysis of data collected from the Russian general population (n=7714, 3312 y.o., 61% females) to estimate suicidality using the Risk Assessment Suicidality Scale (RASS) and its relationships to socio-demographic, clinical, life-habits characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical data evaluation (descriptive statistics, ANOVA, LASSO linear regression, significant at =0.05) was performed using TIBCO Statistica.
 Results. According to the RASS, at least, 20,68% and up to 29,15% of the Russian general population demonstrated the increased suicidality risks during the period of pandemic. Modelling the suicidality risks pointed to the key vulnerabilities related to mental and behavioral disorders, such as (i) current severe depression and the history of mental disorders, (ii) bipolar disorder, (iii) illicit drugs and psychiatric compounds (hypnotics) use, surprisingly outranking the alcohol misuse, and highlighting the sleep quality deterioration. (iv) The history of suicidal attempts and self-harm predicted the pandemic-related increase in suicidal ideation and high suicidality risks, which can be explained by the phenomenon of learned suicidality and habitual behavioral pattern accumulated over the background. Such (v) socio-demographic indicators as younger age (disregarding the gender factor), single marital status, having no children, living with less people in the household, recent increase in family conflicts, increased need in emotional support, decreased need in communication, and not believing in precautions measures against COVID-19, contributed to the increase of suicidality risk in the context of pandemic. Importantly, the self-reported increase in melancholy in response to pandemic has not appeared among suicidality risks, addressing to the melancholic national traits of Russian people.