The New York Times (10/5, Mueller) reports, “The arrival of vaccines and declining Covid-19 cases in the first half of 2021 coincided with an easing of symptoms of anxiety and depression across the” US, but “symptoms remained much more common in June 2021, the end of the survey period, than before the pandemic, and could be on the rise again because of the summer surge in cases of the Delta variant, C.D.C. scientists said.” The findings were published online Oct. 5 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The Hill (10/5, Coleman) reports, “The frequency of anxiety and depression symptoms among American adults amplified during the winter COVID-19 surge, according to a” CDC “study showing the pandemic’s impacts on the country’s mental health.” The study, “spanning from August 2020 to June 2021, found anxiety and depression frequency peaked between December 2020 and January 2021, as COVID-19 cases skyrocketed to new heights during the holiday season.” Despite a drop of 26.8% by June 2021, researchers also found that “the frequency of anxiety and depression still remained ‘substantially’ higher than compared to before the pandemic.”
Healio (10/5, Gramigna) reports investigators came to these conclusions after examining “data from adults aged 18 years or older via 19 biweekly surveys, with a total sample size of 1,526,154 participants.”
Depression Rates Rose Three-Fold Among US Adults During First Year Of Pandemic, Data Indicate. HealthDay (10/5, Preidt) reports, “Depression rates rose three-fold among U.S. adults during the first year of the COVID pandemic,” investigators concluded. In fact, “surveys of more than 6,500 adults found that about 33% have had more intense symptoms of depression this year, compared to 28% in the pandemic’s early months in spring of 2020 and 9% before it began.” The findings were published online Oct. 4 in The Lancet Regional Health.
Psychiatric News (10/5) reports the study revealed that people “most likely to report elevated depressive symptoms tended to have less income and a greater number of COVID-related stressors, including the death of someone close [due] to COVID-19, loss of employment, and/or challenges securing childcare.”
Related Links:
— “Depression and anxiety declined in the first half of 2021 but remained high, the C.D.C. reports “Benjamin Mueller, The New York Times, October 5, 2021