Wednesday’s new study is the latest to show that the Covid-19 epidemic is taking a heavy toll on Americans’ mental health. Research has found that more than a quarter of adults surveyed have recently experienced symptoms of depression more clearly – many of whom said so in a pre-epidemic survey.
Researchers at Boston University and elsewhere recruited more than 1,400 people by phone interviews between late March and mid-April 2020. These volunteers, with the aim of being a national representative sample, answer a questionnaire used regularly to diagnose symptoms of depression (e.g. Question How many days in the last two weeks will you be asked if you have found a little interest or pleasure in doing things). Their responses were then compared with a sample of people who participated in the 2017-18 edition of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual survey of Americans’ lifestyles and dieting habits conducted by the government. The same questionnaire was used in both surveys.
With scores high enough to be considered mediocre (10 or more on a scale of 1 to 20), they were considered obvious depressive symptoms. Overall, 27.8% of participants reached that criterion during the epidemic period in March and April, compared to 8.7% in the previous survey. In each age and demographic group, this level has increased, although it has the same trends before and during an epidemic. For example, both women reported more depressive symptoms than men, but the gap widened during the epidemic (of 33..3% of women had depressive symptoms during the epidemic, compared to 21..9% of men).
When they include people with mild depressive symptoms, the gap widens. A small half of Americans (.5૨. The%) reported some symptoms of depression during the epidemic, compared to the previous 24.7%.
There were findings Published JAMA Network opens Wednesday.
The authors wrote, “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first national representative study to assess the symptoms of depression in U.S. adults using Patient Health Questionnaire-9, before and after the Covid-19-epidemic.” The authors wrote. “We saw a change in the symptoms of depression during Covid-19, with fewer people having no symptoms during Covid-19 and more people with more symptoms.”
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Depression does not necessarily have to be clinical, or major depression, which can be very difficult to treat and can last for months or years at a time. It is possible that many people who experience symptoms during March and April have already recovered or will recover without the need for dedicated treatment. However, the daily death toll reached its current peak in March and April, with more than 1,150,000 deaths across the country since then, while new cases are on the rise every day and as many as 1,000 deaths per day. Is. Average.
This is also not the first Evidence Indicating that the direct and indirect effects of the epidemic, such as the death or illness of loved ones or the loss of employment due to lockdown and government support, are affecting our collective mental health. U.S. And Somewhere else. Indeed, according to researchers, there is evidence that such epidemics may have a greater impact on mental health in countries affected by other large-scale traumatic events in recent history. Protests in Hong Kong Against the government which led to the arrest of thousands and the injuries of protesters. And vice versa Many natural disasters, Which has relocated to an area and / or remained short-lived, the ongoing epidemic is unlikely to end soon, especially in the U.S., which continues to report the highest number of deaths and known cases in the world. Margin
These mental health effects affect sensitive parts of the population, as has often happened during epidemics Too hard Than others. In the study, low-income people had a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms than those with higher incomes, while those with less than 5,000 savings were associated with a 0% higher risk of depressive symptoms.
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