Were pandemic school shutdowns the cause of the increase in youth suicide attempts?

A recent UVA Health study showed suicide attempts by children and teens involving common over-the-counter medicines and prescription medications increased 30 percent from 2019 to 2021 – basically, pre-pandemic to mid-pandemic.

This is something that we’re going to be dealing with for decades, folks.

“This significant increase in suicide attempts during the pandemic surprised us,” said Dr. Christopher Holstege, medical director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center at UVA Health and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

“We are alarmed at the dramatic increase in suicide attempts in such a young population, which continues to escalate according to our data,” Holstege said.

Which is to say, the data are still coming in, meaning, things may get worse just with the short-term numbers.

This was a concern of mine at the outset of the pandemic-related shutdowns in the spring of 2020, as local groups were trying to figure out ways to keep children engaged as schools were shuttering, and would remain closed to in-person learning for the next several months.

Suddenly, the structure of daily life was gone, with no idea in sight when things would get back to normal.

It was hard for adults with more in the way of coping mechanisms to get through things; we don’t have to imagine how tough it was for kids.

Per the UVA Health study, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, commonly available and over-the-counter pain relievers, were the two most common substances involved in the reported suicide attempts.

Sertraline and fluoxetine, antidepressant medications, as well as diphenhydramine, an over-the-counter antihistamine used to treat allergies, were also used.

“These findings suggest that the mental health of children and adolescents might still be affected by the pandemic, raising concerns about long-term consequences, especially given that previous attempted suicide has been found to be the strongest predictor of subsequent death by suicide,” the researchers write in a scientific paper outlining the findings.

Frustration from parents over the pushback from teachers’ unions to re-opening schools, which many now concede should have been done earlier than ended up being the case, fueled Glenn Youngkin’s upset win in the 2021 Virginia governor’s election, with just enough crossover from moderates and independents who had given Joe Biden a 10-point win in Virginia a year earlier to push Youngkin across the finish line.

The debates over schools among adults have since morphed into arguments over the supposed role that critical race theory plays in K-12 education and the rights of transgender students, who make up roughly 0.7 percent of the overall K-12 population in the U.S.

The energy came from a somewhat authentic place – the concerns about what months of rudderless remote education would do to our kids’ academic progress and mental health.

The decline in academic progress has already been well-noted.

The numbers from this UVA Health study are sobering and devastating.

“As a society, we need to come together in a multi-disciplinary manner and strategize on how to best mitigate this rapidly escalating threat to our youth,” Holstege said.

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.