Suicide deaths in Ireland before and during the first year of COVID-19: What changed?

Public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic have raised concerns regarding their impact on suicide risk, through increased social isolation, healthcare disruption, and economic stress. International evidence on suicide trends during the first year of the pandemic is mixed; there is limited peer-reviewed research examining suicide deaths in Ireland during this period. The study aimed to compare sociodemographic, mental health, and physical health characteristics of individuals who died by suicide in Ireland before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify the distinguishing characteristics of individuals whose deaths involved documented COVID-19-related risk factors. Data were drawn from the Irish Probable Suicide Deaths Study (IPSDS), comprising coronial records of all probable suicides in Irelands from 2015 to the end of 2020 (N = 3620). Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests compared characteristics of suicide deaths before (n = 3156) versus after (n = 464) the COVID-19 lockdown. A binary logistic regression compared the differences in characteristics of individuals with documented COVID-19-related risk factors to those without such factors. Compared with the pre-pandemic cohort, individuals who died by suicide during the lockdown period in 2020 were more likely to be female, have a documented physical health concern, and were more likely to exhibit behavioural changes prior to death. Individuals with mental and physical health concerns were more likely to have COVID noted as a significant factor in their deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with modest but important shifts in the characteristics of suicide deaths in Ireland, particularly among individuals with physical health conditions.