COVID-19 takes its toll on mental health, WHO warns

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on mental health, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, noting that cases of anxiety and depression have increased by more than 25% globally.

In a new scientific report, the WHO also notes that the COVID-19 crisis significantly impeded access to mental health services in many cases, raising concerns about the rise in suicidal behaviour.

This report, supported by the analysis and compendium of a large number of studies, determined that in the world there was an increase of 27.6% in cases of major depressive disorder in 2020 alone.

During the first year of the pandemic, it was also possible to verify 25.6% more cases of anxiety disorders worldwide.

“In terms of proportions, this is a huge increase”, Warned Brandon Gray, from the WHO Department of Mental Health and Drug Addiction, who coordinated the scientific report.

The job “shows that COVID-19 has had a strong impact on people’s mental health and well-being”.

The largest increases were seen in places heavily affected by COVID-19, with high rates of daily infections and decreased mobility.

Women were more affected than men, and particularly in a range between 20 and 24 years.

suicidal behaviors

In contrast, the data regarding suicides was mixed and did not show major differences in global rates since the start of the pandemic.

Statistics from some countries show suicide rates on the rise, but in others they decreased or remained unchanged.

Gray cautioned that there is often a delay in collecting and analyzing such statistics. “I don’t think these results should be taken as an indicator that suicidal behaviors are not a concern,” he cautioned.

The study noted that there is an increased risk of suicidal behaviour, including suicide attempts and self-harm, among youth since the beginning of the health crisis.

In addition, burnout among healthcare workers, loneliness, and positive COVID-19 diagnoses have been shown to increase the likelihood of harboring suicidal thoughts.

The study also concluded that those with mental disorders were at increased risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19.

Gray also stressed that more research is needed to establish this link.

One reason, he suggested, could be that those with mental disorders may lead less healthy and active lifestyles, with higher rates of smoking, substance abuse and obesity than the general public.

The study released Wednesday also shows that outpatient mental health services were hit hard in 2020 by the pandemic.

In many cases, these problems were mitigated by online health care services.

The difficulties in responding to the challenges posed by mental health in the midst of the pandemic were largely due to the “lack of investment” constant in such services before the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to Gray.

“Decades of underinvestment are evident in our lack of preparation to tackle the scale of the problem”, he added.