Mental Health Impact of COVID-19: A Survey of 59 Countries

By Shlomo Maital   

  We are approaching almost a year of the coronavirus pandemic – and in virtually every country (except perhaps New Zealand, where fans are filling stadiums to watch the All-Blacks), it is beginning to wear people down.  Here are the results of  large-scale study of the mental health impact, based on a sample of 6,882 individuals in 59 countries. *

  • Elisabet Alzueta et al., “How the COVID-19 Pandemic has changed our lives: A study of psychological correlates across 59 countries”.  J. of Clinical Psychology 2020: 1-15.

Of the nearly 7,000 participants, 25.4 % reported moderate-to-severe depression,  while 19.5% reported anxiety symptoms. 

  What caused the depression?  A variety of factors:  Among them,

*  the country’s income level (higher income correlated with higher depression),  * exposure to COVID-19 (e.g. unconfirmed symptoms), * government lockdowns, * life changes (e.g. working from home); and * conflicts with other adults at home.  However, all these factors ‘explained’ (in a statistical sense) only about one-fifth of the variance in depression.

A major battle is underway between the “the cure (of the pandemic) is worse than the disease, let’s open at once” camp,  and the “you cannot heal the economy until you stamp out the damned virus” camp.  I think the latter are more right – better to severely lock down, like taking a very bitter medicine to cure an illness, to shorten the prolonged impact on mental health by failing to do so.

  It is surreal that American voters are basically being asked to choose between these two camps, Trump vs. Biden —  when the issue is really rooted in complex epidemiology and shrouded in massive uncertainty.   It is clear, however, that the science and the scientists overwhelmingly favor the “end the virus first, clamp down hard” policy.