Men, suicide and Covid-19: Critical masculinity analyses and interventions

Suicide is a global public health burden, causing around 800,000 deaths annually along with many more attempts (World Health Organization 2019). Since Émile Durkheim’s classic study Le Suicide (Durkheim 1951), it has been repeatedly confirmed that suicide rates spike up during and after crises (Chang, Stuckler, Yip, and Gunnell2013;Iemmietal.2016;Gunnelletal.2020).Recent research reports indicate that various socioeconomic, psychological, and health-related impacts of the Covid19 pandemic may heighten the risk of suicidal behaviors (Reger, Stanley, and Joiner 2020;Gunnelletal.2020).Uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,coupled with global responses such as lockdowns, have heightened depression, anxiety, isolation, loneliness, financial concerns, anger, irritability, relationship conflicts, post-traumatic stress disorder, fears, and increased use of alcohol and tobacco (Tull et al. 2020; Courtet, Olié, Debien, and Vaiva 2020). Factors like these intensify risk from suicidal behaviors in people who are traditionally considered as vulnerable and in people who were not considered at risk prior to the pandemic (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education 2020; Courtetetal. 2020). Men demonstrate higher suicide rates than women at all times and across regions and ethnic and socioeconomic groups (Vijayakumar 2015; Naghavi 2019; Cleary 2019), and current sources indicate similar trends during the Covid-19 pandemic (Mooney, Kaplan, and Denis 2020). A recent online international newspaper review attributes 15 suicide cases, 2 suicide attempts, and 1 homicide-suicide to the concomitant impact of Covid-19. All victims except one were men, from all tiers of society (Khan, Arendse, and Ratele 2020). Another international review reports 7 suicide cases associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, 5 of which were men (Thakur and Jain 2020). A country-specific review in Pakistan identifies 12 suicide cases and 4 suicide attempts related to Covid-19; 12 comprised men who suffered serious economic hardships during the pandemic (Mamun and Ullah 2020). Another country-specific review in Bangladesh captures 9 suicide cases associated with Covid-19, 5 of which were men who encountered financial constraints induced by the pandemic (Bhuiyan, Sakib, Pakpour, Griffiths, and Mamun 2020). This preliminary data is still far from complete, and newspaper stories are often ridden with exaggerations and sensationalism. However, positive correlation between longitudinal studies and recent reports indicates that male suicide during the Covid-19 pandemic requires dedicated attention.