8 | New Scientist | 25 July 2020
“EVERYTHING just went haywire.
My moods were all over the place,”
says Black actor and producer Dami
Adeyeye, as he describes the perfect
storm of living with his family under
lockdown in the UK, watching police
brutality in the US after the killing
of George Floyd and seeing a UK
government report showing that
covid-19 is deadlier if you are from
a Black, Asian and minority ethnic
(BAME) background.
Adeyeye has had depression in the
past and isn’t alone in grappling with
his mental health at this time. Across
the UK, a greater percentage of
people from a BAME background than
from a white one said concerns over
jobs, housing and money damaged
their mental health during the
pandemic, according to a survey of
14,000 adults with existing mental
health issues by the UK charity Mind.
The research is part of a growing
wave revealing the contours of the
pandemic-related mental health
crisis many experts predicted.
People treated for covid-19 in
intensive care units have a higher
risk of depression and anxiety, with
about 40 per cent likely to have
post-traumatic stress disorder. That
could amount to tens of thousands
of people in the UK, says Tom Dening
at the University of Nottingham.
Covid-19 can also result in
neuropsychiatric problems.
Indirectly, the coronavirus has
also had sweeping effects on the
mental health of many. “The general
population is suffering the effects of
uncertainty, isolation, disruption of
their social networks, fear of getting
the illness, worrying about family,
concerns about employment,
education and money,” says Dening.
Anxiety and depression levels rose
in the UK and other countries in the
run-up to covid-19 restrictions being
implemented and have stayed above
average during lockdowns. “It’s not
affected everybody equally,” says
Daisy Fancourt at University CollegeLondon, a researcher working on
a study of the mental health of
50,000 people in the UK during
lockdown (medRxiv, doi.org/d378).
“[During lockdown] younger adults
have had worse mental health across
every single measure, including life
satisfaction, suicidal thoughts and
self-harming. Results are also worseamong lower income households
and people living alone.”
Older people have seen less of a
blow to their mental health. Dening,
who specialises in dementia, says
some of his patients have been
surprisingly unaffected. “Some of the
people I was initially worried about,
because they have such isolated
lives, have actually coped very well.They had skills in living this way that
other people had to acquire,” he says.
People in the UK who are married
or in a civil partnership saw double
the pre-pandemic levels of anxiety,
according to the UK Office for
National Statistics. The ONS says the
trend may be because these people
are more likely to have children and
are struggling to balance home-
schooling with work.
Overall, 37 per cent of adults in
Great Britain at the start of May had
high levels of anxiety; before the
pandemic began, it was 21 per
cent, according to the ONS. Other
countries have seen similar rises.
By 1 July, a study of more than
56,000 people in China found that
31.6 per cent had symptoms of
anxiety, compared with 5 to 6 per
cent before the pandemic (JAMA
Network Open, doi.org/d379).
Mental health services may be
struggling to help the people mostseverely affected. A separate study
by Fancourt and her colleagues
found that three in five adults in
the UK who had suicidal thoughts
during the pandemic didn’t have
professional support (The British
Journal of Psychiatry, doi.org/
gg42sn).
In the UK, the level of elevated
anxiety and depression has been
stable under lockdown, marking
this pandemic apart from previous
epidemics such as SARS. With SARS,
the sudden nature of quarantines
saw mental health decline over
28 days and then rebound. The
smaller number of people affected
meant those individuals were upset
by activities they were missing.
With covid-19, many were affected
simultaneously so there was little to
miss, and they could see it coming
so their mental health became worse
in anticipation, before levelling off.
Fancourt fears that with
lockdowns easing, population-level
data on depression and anxiety may
mask deteriorations for some. Some
people are returning to more normal
life, but others may experience a
fear of missing out while under local
lockdown, which may be more
traumatic than earlier lockdowns
that affected everyone, she says.
Music, reading and film-making
have lifted Adeyeye through the
pandemic. For Katie Scott, a student
in Reading, UK, who found her eating
disorder came back due to the social
isolation of lockdown, society’s wider
return to normality has helped. “I’ve
started seeing my friends and can go
out, go shopping and go for drinks.
It’s definitely improved,” she says. ❚Need a listening ear? UK Samaritans:
116123 (samaritans.org); US National
Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1 800 273 8255“ In the UK, elevated levels
of anxiety and depression
have been stable, marking
this pandemic apart”MARIOTAMA/GETTY^ IMAGESNews Coronavirus
A covid-19 patient in
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Anxiety and depression are elevated as people struggle with illness,
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