Madrid (EFE)
This is the conclusion of the “Report on the Evolution of Suicide in Spain in the Child and Adolescent Population (2000-2021)” prepared by Alejandro de la Torre, principal investigator of the Research Group in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Mental Health of the Complutense University of Madrid, together with CIBERSAM researchers, based on INE mortality data.
The research does not include the latest data regarding suicide mortality from 2022, given its provisional nature; However, they already point to a worsening of the figures, with 4,097 people who took their lives in Spain that year, 2.3% more than a year earlier, a proportion that was even higher in those under 20 years of age, in which case the increase was 12%.
Covid-19, ruled out as the exclusive cause
This growing trend, of up to 5.5% since 2018, has occurred in all population groups, with which the published study excludes the covid-19 pandemic as the exclusive cause.
“The covid-19 pandemic has meant, in many ways, an important change at the level of mental health in Spain. The number of cases of suicide in the general population was increased, although in the population of young people and adolescents this impact has not been as significant, nor are changes observed in the comparisons by sex, nationality and place of residence”, the document settles.
Although he adds that “the absence of an impact after the pandemic on the suicide rates of young people and adolescents may be due to the fact that not enough time has passed yet, and that a possible delayed effect may arise later, since the data collected only shows the trend from 2020 to 2021, and not after that”.
But although the increases have occurred at all ages, the study reveals a significant increase in the number of suicides of kids aged 12 to 17 in the 2019-2021 biennium of up to 32.35%, going from 34 to 45 deaths.
In 2021 alone, 336 deaths by suicide were registered in young people between the ages of 12 and 29, “alarming figures” according to the study, which recalls that it is already the leading cause of death in this group: of them, 173 were between 24 and 29 years old; 118 were in the 18-23 range; 45 were between 12 and 17 years old and two were under 12 years of age.
More in the months before and after the summer
In general, the study concludes, “there is a significant imbalance between the number of deaths by suicide in relation to sex”, since 3 out of 4 deaths are in men, of all age groups.
The difference is greater in the range from 25 to 29 years (81.5% in men and 18.5% in women), but the opposite occurs in adolescents from 12 to 17, in whom the ratio has evolved since the beginning of the century from 3:1 to 1:1, so that it now stands at 55.6% in the case of boys and 44.4% in girls.
There are also distinctions in terms of the time of year in which they do so: if the stationary pattern in young people and young adults reflects an increase in deaths in the summer months and later, in the case of adolescents it occurs in the earlier and later months, that is, March, April, May and October.
Finally, the report reveals the geographical distribution of suicides among young people and adolescents: the national average is 3.69 per 100,000 inhabitants, but up to five provinces exceed 7: Ávila (11.67), Melilla (9.24), Palencia (8.24), Navarra (7.12) and La Coruña (7.05).
There are no records of cases of suicide in young people and adolescents in the provinces of Cuenca, Guadalajara, La Rioja, Salamanca, Soria, Zamora and Ceuta.
