TY - JOUR
TI - The Economic Crisis in Greece and Its Impact on the Seasonality of
Suicides in the Athens Greater Area
AU - Christodoulou, Christos
AU - Efstathiou, Vasiliki
AU - Michopoulos,
AU - Loannis
AU - Gkerekou, Maria
AU - Paraschakis, Antonios
AU - Koutsaftis,
AU - Filippos
AU - Douzenis, Athanassios
JO - Psychiatry Investigation
PY - 2017
VL - 14
TODO - 1
SP - 16-20
PB - Korean Neuropsychiatric Association
SN - null
TODO - 10.4306/pi.2017.14.1.16
TODO - Suicide; Seasonality; Economic crisis
TODO - Objective The economic crisis and the implementation of austerity
measures in Greece lead to significant socioeconomic changes. The
effects of the crisis were mainly felt by the Greek population during
the years 2011 and 2012. This study aimed to investigate the impact of
Greece’s economic crisis on the seasonality of suicides in the Athens
Greater Area.
Methods Data were collected for all recorded cases of suicides committed
over a 5-year period (from 2008 to 2012) from the Athens Department of
Forensic Medicine. Two sub-periods were studied in relation to the
economic crisis: 2008-2010 and 2011-2012. Seasonality was estimated with
the Poison regression variant of the circular normal distribution.
Results Suicide seasonality appeared significant during 2008-2010
(relative risk, RR=1.36) and strengthened in the years 2011-2012
(RR=1.69), when the impact of the austerity measures was increasingly
being felt by the Greek society. Regarding the latter sub-period,
seasonality was established for males (RR=1.75), individuals aged 45
years or more (RR=1.75) and suicide by hanging (RR=1.96).
Conclusion The economic crisis in Greece, especially in the period
during its effects had a significant impact on the population’s economic
condition, seems to have strengthened the seasonality of suicides, while
a noteworthy suicide risk of 96% was revealed for suicides by hanging
(peak in early June).
ER -