For some people, the holidays can be a time of struggle – financial, physical or mental.
This had led to the belief that people are more likely to die by suicide in December, around the celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years.
However, according to a long-term study from the University of Pennsylvania, this is a myth. Last year, suicides – which led to the deaths of 49,000 Americans in 2022 – were actually lowest in the month of December, and peaked in August.
This pattern held true even when the team looked to countries with different seasons: suicides decreased in winter.
Yet in 2023, surveys found 80 percent of American adults picked December as the month with the most suicides.
The Penn researchers have been tracking this phenomenon since 1999, and are aiming to set the record straight, which could help save people when suicides actually spike.
Dan Romer, the research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Penn, who was in charge of the research, said it’s true that many people may feel gloomy around this time of year, whether from the weather or from nostalgia or familial problems.
Dr Romer said: ‘Psychologically, because of the shorter and gloomier days of winter in the U.S., we tend to associate them with suicide. But that’s not what happens in reality.’
It’s unclear why the warmer months with longer days might lead to more suicides. But independent researchers suggest it could be linked to inflammation that occurs with seasonal allergies, or it could be that people with depression feel more alienated when the world is bright and hopeful outside.
The Penn researchers gather this data every year from CDC data on death rates. It comes from the National Vital Statistics System system, which gathers information from death certificates in each state.
On average, over the 25 years since they’ve begun tracking the data, they said December, November and January continually rank among the lowest for suicide.
In 2023, the average number of suicides per day in one month was 135. The lowest three months were December, with 123 suicides per day; November, with 126 suicides per day; and October with 131 suicides per day.
The highest months were August, with 142 suicides per day; July with 141 suicides per day; and May, with 139 suicides per day.
Unexpectedly for many, some of the warmest, sunniest months of the year were actually some of the most deadly for suicides.
The researchers wanted to investigate if this rate held in places where the seasons were different. So they looked to Australia, which experiences seasons opposite the US.
Dr Romer’s team found the winter months in Australia – June, July and August – had lower rates of suicide.
The month with the fewest amount of these deaths was June, the beginning of the winter down under.
It’s not entirely clear why suicides might be more common in the summer than in the winter, but experts have several theories.
Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Adam Kaplin, who was not involved in the Penn studies, suggested it could have to do with biology.
In the spring, people are more commonly fighting off allergies, which cause chronic inflammation in the body, and there is a link between inflammation and depression, he said.
Dr Kaplin said: ‘Overwhelming evidence suggests that inflammation from various sources, including allergic reactions, can cause or worsen depression. Our immune system spends the winter trying to ward off viral infections, but not trying to ward off allergies.’
In the study, which has been released annually since the 2000, the researchers used CDC data to track suicide habits by month
Another theory has to do with the length of the days, Barton Goldsmith, a psychotherapist who was not involved in the research said. He theorized on Psychology Today it could have to do with the longer days in the summer months.
Goldsmith said: ‘My thinking is that the days are much longer than in the winter, and this can be hard if you are depressed.’
He added that alcohol and drug use also tend to increase in the summer, which could play a factor.
Another theory offered by Dr Kaplin is that spring and summer could make depressed people feel more left out and alone, since neurotypical people tend to be more active this time of year.
Dr Kaplin said: ‘I also think spring is particularly tough for people who are depressed because after a largely solitary winter, those people emerge into a world full of rebirth, rejuvenation and revelry. In contrast, they feel dark and sad.’
The Penn researchers also conducted studies looking at how media was covering the topic, and said despite their data, people still seemed to believe suicide risk was higher during this festive time of year.
This comes with real concerns about the possibility of social contagion – in which people believe suicide is more common in the dark dreary winter days, which may make them more likely to carry out the act themselves, he said.
Dr Romer added: ‘There’s no need to give people the false impression that others are dying by suicide, when that could actually lead to contagion.’
