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Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Sabrina Philippe (Psychologist)
Medical validation:
March 11, 2023
While we had spoken of a “mental health pandemic”, a new study surprisingly reveals that the mental health of the world’s population has not been greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the exception of a group specific: women.
It is a study for the less astonishing. An extensive survey disseminated in the British Medical Journal reveals that the mental health of the world’s population would have been relatively “unaffected” during the pandemic. Conclusions opposed to all the work done on the subject.
Depressive symptoms “slightly more severe”
To arrive at this theory, the researchers looked at data from 137 studies involving 134 cohorts of people from around the world. Most studies were from high- and middle-income countries. About 75% of the participants were also adults.
The anxious and depressive symptoms of populations have been recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
To their surprise, the researchers found that the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of populations “was relatively minimal“, apart from the fact that the depressive symptoms worsened slightly (+ 0.12).
In women,general mental health (0.22, 0.08 to 0.35), symptoms of anxiety (0.20, 0.12 to 0.29) and symptoms of depression (0.22, 0.05 to 0.40) worsened minimally to weakly“, further notes the study.
The elderly, students and people belonging to a sexual minority group also seemed to be more weakened by the pandemic: in these population categories, depressive symptoms went from “minimal to low“.
“The high risk of bias in many studies and substantial heterogeneity call for caution in interpreting the results. Nevertheless, most symptom change estimates for general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms were close to zero and not statistically significant, and significant changes were minimal to small in magnitude.“, conclude the researchers.
The successive confinements have “affected the morale of the French”
Conclusions, which do not share Sabrina Philippe, psychologist.
“On the ground, we see exactly the opposite. The pandemic has affected the mental health of the population, especially that of isolated people, whether old or younger. Admittedly, some individuals have experienced a form of relief during confinement, as is the case with people with social phobia, but this is a tiny part of the population.“, says the expert.
Several stages have also marked this pandemic.
“The first confinement, “new” for everyone, does not reflect the others. It is the successive confinements and the continuous closure of social places that have affected the morale of the French people. We then observed a strengthening of depressive anxiety symptoms, which are increased tenfold, especially among people who are already psychologically weakened. Since then, not everything has returned to normal: some social breakdowns have taken place and isolation has been created, around for example a good number of elderly people.”