The coronavirus pandemic has killed a staggering number of people worldwide. But it’s also had a profound impact on people’s mental health, including in Iran, where dire economic conditions and strict curbs in individual liberties caused significant psychological hardship even before the current health crisis.
Now, with the COVID-19 outbreak continuing to spread, officials says that there’s an even greater incidence of mental disorders, suicides and physical fighting, Kayhan London reports, citing sources within Iran.
The lockdown of Tehran’s bazar in Iran, in early April 2021. — Photo: Sobhan Farajvan/Pacific Press/ZUMA
The news outlet notes that even before the pandemic, roughly a quarter of the population suffered some type of mental disorder, and that in the year prior to March 2020, an estimated 5,000 Iranians took their own lives.
With the arrival of the virus, people began feeling more desperate.
But with the arrival of the virus, people began feeling more desperate still, as evidenced by a 4% rise in suicides in the period between March and November 2020, according to a source at the state coroner’s office.
Kayhan London also cites an official from the State Welfare Organization, Behzad Vahidnia, to suggest that there’s been a 16% increase in stress and depression since the pandemic began in early 2020.
With regards to people getting into fights, there are no official figures available. But anecdotal evidence drawn from social platform postings suggests that physical violence has increased as well, especially in Iran’s northern and north-western provinces.
