The Parisian high school Hélène-Boucher (XXth) ends its week in a special atmosphere, a mixture of shock and sadness, accentuated this Friday by the presence of a psychological unit dispatched by the rectorate of Paris.
Late Thursday afternoon, a young man tried to end his life in the school grounds.
The final year student is now out of danger, but the violence of his gesture is coupled with a clear observation: the recurrence, in recent months, of suicide attempts among young people.
Published in early October by Jama Network, a study on the evolution of the number of suicide attempts among children between 2010 and April 2021 clearly shows that the 13 months of health crisis linked to Covid-19 stand out.
"The pandemic is associated with profound changes in the dynamics of suicide attempts among children, summarizes the analysis, based on a sample of 830 admissions to the Paris Robert-Debré hospital and which underlines" a spectacular increase in attempts to suicide among children in late 2020 and early 2021 after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in France ”.
Read alsoYoung people in distress in the face of the pandemic: the survey that worries
Scientific study, political tool
On Thursday, the leader of the Patriots, Florian Philippot, highlighted two graphics from this study to blame the government for this suicidal outbreak directly.
A curve of children's suicides which jumps.
Like never.
Nothing more serious than that!
In a normal country, Véran, Castex and Macron would resign as a whole!
⤵️ pic.twitter.com/8Hh0wMJSb4
- Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) October 21, 2021
But such a conclusion comes up against several limits, starting with the fact that the results obtained do not apply only to France. "Our study concerns rather the north-east of the country because of the location of the Robert-Debré hospital, but what is interesting is that the results can be superimposed on all the international literature on the subject" , underlines Professor Richard Delorme, Head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Robert-Debré Hospital and co-author of the study.
Professor Delorme agrees: "850 patients at Robert-Debré, it is not very large as a sample, but when we look at what is happening in the United States, Japan or Korea for example, we get very similar data: an increase in emergency room visits, a drop in the first phase of the health crisis, an acceleration in the second phase, ”he describes.
A health crisis but several possible causes, sometimes opposite
The causal link between the pandemic and this distress remains to be explored. "Many factors may have contributed to this acceleration, such as children's specific sensitivity to health restriction measures, deteriorating family health and conditions, increased screen time and addiction to social media," or even mourning, ”explains the study. But at present, few analyzes - if any - give in detail the reasons for this link between Covid-19 and suicide attempts among young people.
One thing is certain, the study of Richard Delorme and his colleagues did not serve a political end in any way, and certainly not that of the antivax and anti-pass that Florian Philippot defends.
“The whole point of the study was that our recommendations at the start of the crisis, namely not to close all schools - be scientifically validated.
"On this point, again, it is too difficult to say:" We do not have a big difference with the United States, which has however closed their schools a lot.
And impossible to establish what would have happened if we had closed our schools for eight months in a row, since that did not happen, ”summarizes Professor Delorme.
An outbreak that is diminishing
Good news, the outbreak seems to have subsided for a few weeks.
“We are gradually joining a phase of tension that was already familiar before the crisis,” says Professor Delorme.
The fact remains that parents must remain alert in the event of a change in their child's behavior.
"Has he become more taciturn, is he eating less?"
You must not lose your intuition as a parent, ”advises the child psychiatrist.
And don't be afraid to shock your child by bringing up a subject.
“If you think about it, the child will have thought about it before you do.
"