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. 2020 Aug:290:113145.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113145. Epub 2020 May 28.

Aggregated COVID-19 suicide incidences in India: Fear of COVID-19 infection is the prominent causative factor

Deena Dimple Dsouza  1 , Shalini Quadros  1 , Zainab Juzer Hyderabadwala  1 , Mohammed A Mamun  2
Affiliations

Aggregated COVID-19 suicide incidences in India: Fear of COVID-19 infection is the prominent causative factor

Deena Dimple Dsouza et al. Psychiatry Res. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Many Indian COVID-19 suicide cases are turning the press-media attention and flooding in the social media platforms although, no particular studies assessed the COVID-19 suicide causative factors to a large extent. Therefore, the present study presents 69 COVID-19 suicide cases (aged 19 to 65 years; 63 cases were males). The suicide causalities are included as follows - fear of COVID-19 infection (n=21), followed by financial crisis (n=19), loneliness, social boycott and pressure to be quarantine, COVID-19 positive, COVID-19 work-related stress, unable to come back home due to lockdown, unavailability of alcohol etc. Considering the extreme psychological impacts related to COVID-19, there emerges a need for countrywide extensive tele-mental health care services.

Keywords: COVID-19 fear; COVID-19 stress; COVID-19 suicide; Indian suicides; Press media reporting suicide; Psychological impact & pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors of the paper do not have any conflict of interest.

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