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Mental health has been at the heart of concerns since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, according to a new study conducted by Ifop, 20% of French people have seriously considered committing suicide.
The results of a long study carried out in May 2022 by Ifop for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation are cause for concern. According to this work, which involved 1,000 people in France and five other European countries – Germany, Spain, Ireland, Sweden and Poland – “40% of French people feel more depressed since the arrival of Covid-19 than before” and “one in five have seriously considered suicide“.
Similar figures everywhere in Europe
The study, which compares different European countries, shows that morale is at half mast everywhere. In Spain, they are also 40% to feel more depressed since the pandemic, 55% in Poland, 44% in Germany, 53% in Ireland and 38% in Sweden.
When we detail the French results a little, we see that this figure rises to 51% among women under 35, which suggests that mental health disorders affect more women and young people, more particularly.
Acting out on the rise
In France, as in Spain, one person in five (20%) has at least once in their life seriously considered committing suicide. “The French specificity is that if the proportion of French people having suicidal thoughts is rather at a lower level than the average, the percentage, among them, of those who take action by making a suicide attempt is higher than that of the other countries in the panel studied“says the study.
Indeed, acting out is increasing sharply and has risen from 22% in 2016 to 30% today. This puts France at the top of this sad ranking compared to its European neighbors, and tied with Poland.
The psychiatrist who coordinated this study, Michel Debout, believes that “when 6% of the French population (which represents 3.5 million people) has already attempted suicide compared to 3% 20 years ago, it is very worrying and this should challenge the public authorities”.
Few specialist consultations
These depressive and lonely thoughts are mainly due to “social precariousness, poverty and forced isolation“young people, who are particularly affected by the situation, according to the specialist.
Finally, the figures of the study raise awareness that only “16% of French people have had the opportunity to consult a psychiatrist”, compared to 20% of Germans, Spaniards or Irish, 19% of Swedes and 25% of Poles. A “misery of French psychiatry” denounced by Michel Debout, who calls for work to “improve mental health in France”.