The alarms about mental illness replaced each other in 2020. The increased isolation was predicted to lead to more suicides and on the Suicide Line more volunteers were hired to handle incoming calls.

But there is still no indication that suicides have increased.

Slightly fewer in 2020

SVT has therefore taken part in suicide statistics for January to October 2020 and compared it with the same period during 2010-2019.

They show - contrary to what many feared - that suicides were slightly lower during the pandemic year 2020.

As the figures lag behind, SVT has chosen to only take part in the statistics that have been confirmed by the National Board of Forensic Medicine.

The figures for November and December are therefore excluded.

"Easier to share problems"

Christian Rück is a professor of psychology at Karolinska Institutet and has studied the reduction in a study at Karolinska Institutet.

- In a way, it is not so unexpected.

In previous severe crises and pandemics, no increase has been seen and it was not obvious that it would be this time either.

A tricky social situation does not have to lead to more suicides, he says.

One reason may be the "community of fate" that is formed in a collective crisis such as a pandemic.

- Normally, our suffering is more individual.

For people with depression, for example, it can in some sense be easier to share the problems.

Knowing that everyone is worried, not just me.

There is little evidence for a negative effect

The restrictions have also made some dangerous behaviors less common, says Christian Rück.

- You have to go home from the pub at 20.30, for example.

Some risky things become less common and that affects the suicide rate, I would think.

Do you think we will see an increase in the future?

- I would not believe it, based on the fact that there are already preliminary data for the whole of 2020. In the US, a reduction in suicide has also been seen.

There is really quite a bit that suggests that we should have an acute negative effect.

Whether it affects in the long run is of course harder to say.