(Updated)
The Covid-19 pandemic's toll on mental health is apparently beginning to show itself through an increased suicide rate on Guam during the first eight months of the coronavirus year. Numbers indicate that the mental sufferings caused by Covid-19 can be more fatal than the virus itself.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has recorded 26 suicides from January to August, or an average of 3.25 a month. There were 15 suicides in the last three months alone-- June (5), July (5) and August (5)-- at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak that has sent people behind locked doors with no jobs to return to when the economy reopens.
The Covid-19 has infected more than 1,300 residents and killed 13 as of today.
Records from 2019 showed a total of 31 suicides.
In a recent report, the World Health Organization warns of a looming mental illness crisis around the world resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Multiple lines of evidence indicate that the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has profound psychological and social effects. The psychological sequelae of the pandemic will probably persist for months and years to come," according to study published in the QJM International Journal of Medicine.
The study indicated that the coronavirus pandemic is associated with distress, anxiety, fear of contagion, depression and insomnia in the general population and among healthcare professionals.
"Social isolation, anxiety, fear of contagion, uncertainty, chronic stress and economic difficulties may lead to the development or exacerbation of depressive, anxiety, substance use and other psychiatric disorders in vulnerable populations including individuals with pre-existing psychiatric disorders and people who reside in high Covid-19 prevalence areas.
On Guam, the coronavirus contagion has kept the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center’s crisis hotline busy.
In an interview in June, Clarissa Maniebo, a crisis hotline worker, said a total of 609 phone calls to hotline from March 16 to April 25, and most of the calls were related to Covid-19 crisis, including joblessness and quarantine-triggered anxiety and depression.
Maniebo said the latest information for the recent months were not currently available.
