The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a major disruption to the life of the majority of people, globally, which has affected mental health in many ways. But there are ways to reduce the severity of these effects..
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the majority of the human population across the world and has had wide-ranging effects on individuals’ lives, ranging from long-term health outcomes to changing work schedules. A recent article published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, discusses the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, including anxiety, depression, distress, suicide rates, and more. The authors also offer several recommendations for mediating these factors.
This article contains two sections, the first of which discusses the mental-health correlates of living through the pandemic. It relies on evidence gathered through April 2021. This includes a discussion of distress, self-harming behavior, and subjective well-being. The second section contains seven main recommendations about how the mental health effects of the pandemic may be managed. This includes large-scale research into treating mental-health consequences, safe access to childcare and elementary schools, and promoting widespread subjective well-being efforts at workplaces and schools.
Findings from this study include a 96% increase in suicides among young women during October 2020, an increase in reports of psychological distress among low-income populations, and a slight increase in loneliness which is unlikely to be a primary cause of psychological distress during the pandemic. The sources surveyed indicated a lower increase in rates of self-harm than expected during the eraly months of the pandemic, but posited that the decline may stem from lower detection levels and fewer primary care visits during the pandemic.
The authors conclude by noting that vaccination and the return to pre-pandemic life are unlikely to immediately or fully address the mental health patterns that are reported throughout the article. They recommend an increase in attention to mental health over the coming years, as the fallout of the effects of the pandemic come to be understood. They also emphasize the importance of subjective well-being measurements on policy decisions.
Reference:
Aknin, L. B. , J.-E. D. N., Dunn, E.W. , Fancourt, D.E., Goldberg, E., Helliwell, J.F.,… Ben Amor, Y. (2022). Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Recommendations for Moving Forward. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(4), 915-936. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211029964
