December 2020, ScientificAmerican.com 25THE SCIENCE
OF HEALTHClaudia Wallis is an award-winning science journalist whose
work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, Fortune and
the New Republic. She was science editor at Time and managing
editor of Scientific American Mind.Illustration by Fatinha Ramos
You didn’t need a crystal ball to forecast that the COVID-19 pan-
demic would devastate mental health. Illness or fear of illness, social
isolation, economic insecurity, disruption of routine and loss of
loved ones are known risk factors for depression and anxiety. Now
studies have confirmed the predictions. But psychologists say the
findings also include surprises about the wide extent of mental dis-
tress; the way media consumption exacerbates it; and how badly
it has affected young people.
For example, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, published in August, found a tripling of anx-
iety symptoms and a quadrupling of depression among 5,470
adults surveyed compared with a 2019 sample. Similarly, two
nationally representative surveys conducted in April, one by
researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health and
another at Johns Hopkins University, found that the prevalence
of depressive symptoms (B.U.) and “serious psychological distress”
(Hopkins) were triple the level measured in 2018. “These rates
were higher than what we’ve seen after other large-
scale traumas like September 11th, Hurricane
Katrina and the Hong Kong unrest,” says Cath-
erine Ettman, lead author of the B.U. study.
Some of the most affected groups in
these studies were people who had pre-
existing mental health issues, low-income
individuals, people of color, and those
close to someone who suffered or died
from COVID-19. In Ettman’s study,
however, the group in the U.S. with the
single biggest rise in depression—up
fivefold—was of Asian ethnicity. In an ac -
companying commentary, psychiatrist Ruth
Shim suggested the upsurge could reflect
the impact of racism and slurs related to
the pandemic’s origin in China.
An unanticipated find ing, across all
three surveys, was the outsized toll on
young adults. In the CDC survey, 62.9
percent of 18- to 24-year-olds re -
ported an anxiety or depressive
disorder, a quarter said they
were using more drugs and
alcohol to cope with pan-
demic-related stress, and a quarter said they had “seriously con-
sidered suicide” in the previous 30 days. Young adults were also
the most affected age group in an unusual, real-time study that
tracked the rapid rise in “acute distress” and depression at three
points between mid-March and mid-April. “We expected the
opposite because it was already clear that older individuals were
at greater risk” from the virus, says senior author Roxane Cohen
Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine.
Silver suspects that young people “may have had more dis-
ruption in life events: graduations, weddings, the senior year of
college and of high school. All those transitions were disrupted,
as well as school and social connections, which we know are very
important for young people.”
Her study, which involved 6,500 people, does point to one
major contributor to anxiety for people of all ages: increased
engagement with media coverage of the outbreak. Especially
problematic is exposure to conflicting information. Silver, who
has studied the psychological fallout of events such as 9/11 and
the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, says that a fixation on
media coverage is a known risk factor: “If people are engaged
with a great deal of media, they are more likely to exhibit and
report distress, but that distress seems to draw them further into
the media. It’s a cyclical pattern from which it is difficult to extri-
cate oneself.”
Silver and others who investigate mass trauma have sugges-
tions for keeping mental equilibrium in challenging times. Limit-
ing media consumption and avoiding sensationalist reports is one.
Maintaining social contacts—via Zoom, phone or other COVID-safe
methods—is also vital, says psychologist James Pennebaker of
the University of Texas at Austin. “Unlike any
other disaster that I’ve studied, people are
actively less close to friends and com-
munity,” says Penne baker, who is ex -
amining the pandemic’s mental
health impact by analyzing
posts on the social media plat-
form Reddit.
Fewer hugs and less
shared grieving may help ex-
plain why people do not seem
to be adjusting to the new nor-
mal, Penne baker says. “This is
not 9/11 or an earthquake,
where something big hap-
pens, and we all get back
to normal pretty quickly.”
His other tips are to main-
tain healthy sleep, exercise,
food and drink habits. Keep a
journal, too. Research shows that
ex pressive writing helps people
process difficult emotions and find
meaning, he says: “If you’re worrying about COVID
too much, try writing about it.”The Mental Toll
of COVID-19
The rise in depression and anxiety is
even worse than expected, especially
among young adults
By Claudia Wallis