Paradoxes of suicide and psychological crisis - An Uttarakhand phenomenon during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

th th Indian government had mandated nationwide lockdown with stringent guidelines from March 24 to May 4 2020. Lockdown created  huge impact on everything. It has exacerbated pre-existing mental illness in many, thereby leading to “Quarantine Blues.” This  retrospective study had been conducted in Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at a tertiary health care centre, Haldwani  th th in Nainital district; Uttarakhand to focus on how the lockdown effect correlated to suicide from March 24 to May 4 2020 with the  same time period of preceding years (2016-2019). There was a decline in the trend of suicides during lockdown (n=1) when compared  with concurrent time interval over the previous years. Domestic violence spikes are supposed to bloom the number of suicides, but  Uttarakhand phenomenon is a paradox which needs to be further evaluated.