The “most comprehensive study in the world”
McGill University researchers, along with colleagues from other Canadian universities, studied mental health symptoms before and during the pandemic. To get there, they looked at 137 studies carried out in different languages and involving 134 cohorts of people from all over the world. According to the Montreal scientists, the research published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) is thus “the most comprehensive in the world on mental health related to COVID-19”.
Women, a little more affected
The researchers did not notice any changes in mental health or anxiety symptoms before and during the pandemic in the general population. The symptoms of depression, however, got worse, but “minimally”. Looking closer, the scientists noticed that the women meanwhile saw their symptoms of general mental health, anxiety and depression worsen “minimal to low”.
For what ?
Brett Thombs, lead author of the study and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, hypothesizes that the mental workload of women increased when their children had to stay at home because of the closure of schools or when they have been sick. “Also, we must not forget the crisis that has raged in residences for the elderly and in hospitals,” he adds. The people who work in these places are mostly women. We weren’t able to collect a lot of data on female health care workers, but they’ve been under tremendous stress during the pandemic,” says the senior researcher at the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital. .
Academics and sexual minorities
Symptoms of depression “worsened minimally to mildly” in older adults, college students, and people who identify as a sexual or gender minority, the study also found. General mental health and anxiety symptoms remained unchanged among university students. Among parents, the data suggests that they suffered somewhat more from general mental health symptoms and anxiety during COVID-19, but the results are only based on a small number of participants.
Surprise !
These results are surprising and they also contradict other research on mental health carried out since the start of the pandemic. Professor Thombs does not hide it: his team was surprised by the conclusions of the study. “Everyone assumed that mental health had declined during the pandemic. But to assess change, you need to know the health status of participants before the pandemic. You can’t just take a photo at a specific time during COVID-19. It’s the kind of study that’s a bit more complicated because you’ve had to track people for a while,’ says Professor Thombs.
“There are all kinds of cases”
“What this data tells us is to stop sounding the alarm about a pandemic-related mental health crisis. There are all kinds of cases. Some people have had terrible experiences during the pandemic. But others have also seen their quality of life and their situation at work improve. They have re-prioritized and are spending more time with family,” says Thombs. He insists all the same that the offer of mental health services be reviewed and improved, “because we were already doing a lamentable job in this area long before the pandemic”, he laments.
And no more suicides
Although their results are somewhat surprising, the McGill University researchers say they are consistent with those of the largest study on suicide during the pandemic, published in The Lancet in July 2021. In this case, the researchers had identified cases of suicide in 21 countries, including Canada, between 1er January 2019 and July 31, 2020. They had found no evidence of a statistically significant increase, in any country. However, statistically significant decreases were noted in 12 countries or regions.