"Although early in 2020 sociologists were expecting a 'perfect storm' of suicide risks during the pandemic, early local data sets from the U.S. and abroad have almost universally been demonstrating a decrease in suicide rates," said Dr. Paul Nestadt, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"This data release confirms those early indicators, both in terms of the overall decrease as well as the increase in suicides among people of color, who were arguably hit harder by the true toll of the pandemic," said Nestadt, who has no ties to the new research.
Study co-author Sally Curtin agreed. "These increases are pretty consistent with which groups were harder hit by the depression, anxiety, substance abuse and economic hardships during the pandemic," said Curtin, a demographic/health statistician at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
For the study, the researchers analyzed death records from the NCHS and compared deaths classified as suicides to similar deaths occurring in 2019.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-11-03/despite-stress-of-pandemic-us-suicide-rate-dropped-in-2020