According to a study by the University Hospital in Essen, 500 children had to be treated in an intensive care unit after suicide attempts in 2021. This is a dramatic and enormous increase of 400% compared to the time before Corona. Experts see lockdowns as a possible cause and are therefore calling for schools to be kept open at all costs. On Wednesday, the ministers of education will discuss whether schools will be closed again because of Omikron.
In the period from March to the end of May 2021 around 500 children in Germany had to be treated in intensive care units following suicide attempts. This sharp increase in suicide attempts by children at the end of the lockdown in spring 2021 was determined by an as yet unpublished study by Essen University Hospital. According to the study, 93 suicide attempts were reported by 27 German paediatric intensive care units in a register set up for this purpose. This is significantly more than in the comparable periods of previous years: in 2017 there were 25 suicide attempts by children, in 2018 there were 35, there were 37 suicide attempts in 2019 and in 2020 there were 22. If these figures from 2021 are extrapolated to all paediatric intensive care units in Germany, this results in around 450 to 500 suicide attempts by children throughout Germany.
Dr Christian Dohna-Schwake is a senior consultant in paediatric intensive care medicine at Essen University Hospital and assisted in the study. He explained that lockdowns and school closures in spring 2021 had dragged on endlessly and sees this as a possible cause for this terrible development. The social isolation associated with a lockdown had particularly burdened those children who had already suffered from depression or anxiety disorders beforehand. We know from research that “social contacts outside social media have a preventive effect” against such mental illnesses, Dohne-Schwake emphasised.
His recommendation is therefore to keep the schools open “as long as that is somehow possible”. On Wednesday, the education ministers of the federal states will discuss whether schools should be closed again because of the Omikron variant.
It is undisputed that anxiety disorders and depression, as well as eating disorders, have increased among young people during the pandemic, he said. Many young people also lacked a perspective. The second lockdown had dragged on for a long time and it was not known when it would end. “In addition, there was fear for family members and an increase in the use of social media,” Dohna-Schwake elaborated. Fortunately, most suicide attempts were not successful. In many cases, however, poisoning by tablets occurred.
https://www.wochenblick.at/brisant/schock-studie-400-mehr-kinder-selbstmorde/