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COVID-19 hits nations worldwide. Social restrictions are being put in place in an effort to limit the spread of the corona virus and save lives.

We’re to keep a physical distance to reduce the risk of infection, but it’s now on an emotional level that we need to get closer” says Danuta Wasserman, director of the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet.

The National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) wants to raise awareness about the potential increase in suicide and self-harm behavior as a result of the societal impact of the corona pandemic (COVID-19). Risks are linked but not limited to the social, economic and health-related consequences of the pandemic which will continue in the future.

The Swedish organisation Psykiatrifonden has just announced which projects will receive research funding by money earmarked for suicide preventative research donated by Suicide Zero. Lotfi Khemiri at Karolinska Institutet is responsible for one of the projects and is studying the connection between substance abuse and risk of suicide.

Refugees who fled to Sweden were no more likely to die by suicide than migrants who moved to the country on their own terms, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and UCL in the U.K. However, the risk of suicide for both groups increased the longer they stayed in Sweden and was after 20 years almost on par with that of the native population. The study is published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

In a report written on behalf of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have concluded that the risk of suicide among unaccompanied refugee minors and young adults in 2017 was nine times higher than the equivalent figure for the same age group in the Swedish population.

On Tuesday 21 February Karolinska Institutet was visited by the Governor General of Canada David Johnston, his wife Sharon Johnston and the King and Queen of Sweden. The visit took place in conjunction with the state visit by the Governor General and his wife to Sweden at the invitation of the King.

Criminality can be an indicator of a higher risk of suicide in young people. A new study from Karolinska Institutet and the National Board of Health and Welfare shows that repeat offenders between the ages of 15 and 19 are three times more likely to commit suicide than young people who have not been convicted for a crime during these years.