On Monday, Newsweek’s Lauren Zanolli reported on the rising suicide rate in Greece. As the country has fallen into economic instability, so too, it seems, has the mental health of an increasing number of Greek citizens.
"[T]he toll of recent events is written clearly on the faces of many people here," Zanolli writes. "The emotional impact of the crisis has also been steadily chipping away at this country that prides itself on its never-say-die resiliency." Specifically, Zanolli cites a newer study published in BMJ Open, which reports a 35-percent jump in the suicide rate during the first two years of austerity programs.
In periods of economic downturn, suicide becomes a sadly common trend.
A 2012 study in the Lancet found that, in the United States, the suicide rate increased four times faster between 2008 and 2010—the peak of the recession—than it had in the previous eight years. "The rate had been increasing by an average of 0.12 deaths per 100,000 from 1999 through 2007,"writes the New York Times’ Benedict Carey in his overview of the study. "In 2008, the rate began increasing by an average of 0.51 deaths per 100,000 people a year."
[For more of this story, written by Max Ufberg, go to http://www.psmag.com/business-...tes-rising-in-greece]
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