Long COVID as a Possible Contributor to Rising Suicide Mortality in Bharat (India): An Analysis of Suicide Trends Since the Emergence of COVID-19

Mortality due to suicide is amongst the largest public health concerns across the world today in Bharat (India). There have been concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to worsening mental health outcomes across the world, including in Bharat. Furthermore, long COVID has been proposed to be a major consequence of COVID-19, which can also worsen mental health outcomes. Therefore, our objective in this study was to analyse trends in suicide mortality across Bharat and to compare these trends to changes prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; in addition, we aimed to analyse if long COVID had any role in these changes. It was found that, at a national level, the average annual increase in the suicide rate between 2019 and 2022 was 0.7 per 100,000 people (a 6.41% increase). There was also an average annual rise in suicide rates across 27 states/union territories (out of the 33 that were analysed). States/UTs with the highest annual increases since the start of the COVID-19, despite a decrease from 2018 to 2019, were Tamil Nadu (increased by 2.7; a 15.17% increase) and Telangana (increased by 1.9; a 9.22% increase). Multi-linear regression showed that the annual suicide rate changes were not associated with COVID-19 deaths per 10,000 people (standardized beta coefficient = 0.077; p = 0.605) but were associated with COVID-19 cases per 100 people (standardized beta coefficient = 0.578; p < 0.001). It has been shown that suicide mortality has worsened, and long COVID may have a potential role in this in Bharat.