RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The mud from the Vale dam that broke in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, continues to affect residents of the municipality. Just over seven months after the company’s iron dam collapse last January 25th, figures from the Municipal Health Secretariat show an increase in suicides and attempts in the municipality, especially among women.
The picture reflects the deterioration in the mental health of the population, evidenced by a
significant increase in the prescription of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. In the first half of 2019, 39 suicide attempts were recorded in the city (11 among men and 28 among women), 9 more than in the same period last year – a 23 percent increase. In relation to suicides, the number rose from one in 2018 to three this year.
City hall data shows that the use of antidepressants by patients in the public health network was, in August 2019, 60 percent higher than in the same period last year. In relation to anti-anxiety drugs, the increase is even more significant, at 80 percent, in the same period of time.
The numbers are even more dramatic by each prescribed medicine. “The use of risperidone increased 143 percent,” says Brumadinho’s municipal health secretary, Junio Araújo Alves. The drug is used in the treatment of psychosis, acting against disorders related to emotions, anxiety, perception disorders, and distrust.
Elizângela Gonçalves Maia, 39, a former resident of Córrego do Feijão – the place most affected by mud – is in the city’s two-drug discharge registers: after the tragedy,
she started taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. After the mud, her house started to show cracks and was condemned by the Civil Defense. Today, she lives in the city in a house rented by Vale.
“I was diagnosed with depression. What I feel is that I am in a place that is not mine,” said Elizângela, who lost a cousin and friends in the tragedy. Elizângela also began to have high blood pressure but says she doesn’t take medicine for that.