As a Logic song topped the charts, helpline saw more calls and fewer suicides
During the time that a song whose title is the number of a national suicide prevention helpline topped charts, calls to the helpline increased and suicides decreased, a new study shows. The song, “1-800-273-8255,” depicts a fictitious exchange between someone expressing suicidal thinking and an operator of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline who counsels a person and ultimately changes that person’s mind.
Leaders of the Lifeline and researchers who study suicide and media co-authored the study, which was published on Monday in the British Medical Journal. They found that three major events — the song’s release, the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, and the 2018 Grammy Awards — were correlated with increases in calls to the helpline and, overall, a significant reduction in suicides.
