People With Prior Depression or Anxiety More Severely Affected by COVID-19 Pandemic Disruption

According to a new study co-led by UCL researchers, people with higher pre-pandemic levels of depression or anxiety have been more severely affected by job and healthcare disruption during the pandemic.

The study, published in The British Journal of Psychiatry and funded by UKRI, looked at data from 59,482 people regularly surveyed as part of 12 ongoing longitudinal studies in England. It found that people whose survey responses suggested higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms before the pandemic were 24% more likely to experience delays in medical procedures, 12% more likely to lose their jobs, and 33% more likely to disrupt regulations or medication during the first eight to 10 months of the pandemic than those with average levels of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Those with more severe symptoms of depression or anxiety were much more likely to experience disruptions to jobs, income and health care, the study found.

dr. Praveetha Patalay (UCL), senior author of the paper, said: “Our findings highlight that the broader health and economic impacts of the pandemic have been disproportionately experienced by people with mental health problems, potentially leading to worsening of longer-term outcomes. , even post-pandemic, for those who already have poor mental health.”

Professor Nishi Chaturvedi (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging at UCL), who is co-leader of the Covid-19 Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing National Core study, said: “The anxiety and depression experienced by study participants Going beyond the mental illness reported to primary care physicians and health services, this is a largely hidden group of people vulnerable to potentially long-term health and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.”

Lead author Dr Giorgio Di Gessa (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Policymakers should consider these findings when providing future health care and economic support, as failing to address these disruptions could further exacerbate health inequalities. Pharmacists and frontline staff must take special care to ensure that people with mental health problems do not miss appointments, procedures and regulations.

“It is also important to note that pre-pandemic mental health problems were generally more common among women, younger generations, ethnic minorities and those with less qualifications, meaning that the overall impact of disruption on these groups is greater.”

Lead author Dr. Michael Green (University of Glasgow) said: “During the pandemic many people lost their jobs or lost their income and faced health disruptions*. Our study shows that this disruption would especially affect people with a previous mental illness.

“We need to ensure that health care and support for economic hardship are not too difficult to access for these vulnerable people, especially as existing pandemic economic support such as leave is being taken away.”

The work was conducted as part of the COVID-19 Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing National Core study, led by UCL researchers and funded by UKRI. The study involved researchers from UCL, King’s College London, the University of Glasgow, the University of Leicester, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Bristol.

In each of the longitudinal studies, respondents answered questionnaires designed to assess mental health, on average, about three years before the pandemic. They later reported the disruptions they had experienced between March and December last year.

The researchers compared disturbances faced by people whose responses showed “average” levels of anxiety and depression with disturbances that affected people with more anxiety and depression than average, regardless of whether they had a clinical diagnosis or were seeking treatment for a disease. mental illness.

The research team looked at the disruptions of the pandemic in three areas: health care (access to medicines, procedures or surgery and appointments); economic activity (work, income or working hours); and housing (change of address or family composition). They found that people with previous mental illness were more likely to experience disruptions to the economy and health care, but were not more likely to experience housing disruption.

Professor Chaturvedi added: “The UKRI’s support has enabled collaboration in 12 longitudinal cohort studies, enabling us to answer critical pandemic questions that could not be answered any other way.”

* According to an Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) briefing note, during the early phase of the pandemic, one in six people over the age of 50 reported that hospital treatment had been canceled, and another one in 10 was unable to visit or speak to their GP : https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15160

Reference: “Pre-pandemic mental health and healthcare disruptions, economic and housing outcomes during COVID-19: Evidence from 12 longitudinal studies in the UK” by Giorgio Di Gessa, Jane Maddock, Michael J. Green et al., September 30, 2021 , The British Journal of Psychiatry.
DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2021.132