Rock bottom: researchers link EU suicide hike to financial crisis

A tragic human face of the global financial crisis has raised its ugly head in new research that links a surge in European suicides to the economic downturn.

The disturbing trend, detailed in an article published Friday in British medical journal, The Lancet, which analyses initial data from 10 European Union (EU) countries, indicates suicide rates are steepest in hard-hit economies like Greece (up 17 percent) and Ireland (up 13 percent).

"Even though we're starting to see signs of a financial recovery, what we're now also seeing is a human crisis – there's likely to be a long tail of human suffering following the downturn," Cambridge University sociologist David Stuckler told Reuters.

While there was currently insufficient data to put a realistic estimate on the number of GFC-related deaths, he told the news agency that this was in the planning.

"In particular, we want to understand better why some individuals, communities, and entire societies are especially vulnerable, yet some seem more resilient to economic shocks," he said.

"We can already see that the countries facing the most severe financial reversals of fortune, such as Greece and Ireland, had greater rises in suicides."

Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that the study viewed increased suicides as "just the tip of the iceberg", alerting researchers to warning signs of a mental health crisis and spiralling incidence of depression.

According to the BBC and Daily Mail, researchers on the collaborative project, also including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of California, found a rise in unemployment rates was immediately tagged by a rise in suicide rates in nine of the 10 countries studied between 2007 and 2009.

As noted by the BBC, the research advocates investment in welfare systems as the key to reducing suicide rates, focusing on efforts to support people back into the workplace or prevent them from losing their jobs in the first place, ahead of benefits packages.

In related news, the BBC conducted an investigation earlier this year pointing to a rise in anti-depressant prescribing during the financial crisis. The organisation found that prescriptions for drugs such as Prozac increased by more than 40 percent over the past four years, “with GPs saying more and more people were coming to them with money worries”.

According to a separate article in the British of Journal of Psychiatry, published in March and reported by the BBC, the number of men suffering depression could rise on the back of economic and social changes in Western society, eroding their self-esteem.

Across the globe in Brisbane, Australia, a provocative grassroots mental health campaign launches next week, telling men to "Soften the fck up".

As the Brisbane Times reports, the campaign challenges the tough guy image and encourages men to tell, hear and read stories on mental health issues.

"I think the whole 'harden the f— up' [mentality means] when you seek help you worry about your mates thinking you're weak or soft or not trying hard enough, and you think you're losing control over the situation," Spur Projects founder told the online news site.

"[I want to] try to change men's thinking that real men don't seek help; [it should be that] you know who you are and you know when things are tough and you seek help."