Depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions in Germany.

Abstract

Since the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in Germany, various lockdown measures were imposed across the country that likely had a large impact on psychological well-being. In the current study, we investigate depressive symptoms as depression is a leading contributor to the global burden of disease and potentially life-threatening. This study reports on a dataset that was collected between April 8 and June 1 2020 through an online survey in several German states. More than 2000 individuals took part in the survey measuring depressive symptoms (as defined in ICD-10). Similar to recent observations from Italy and China, severe depressive symptoms reported were relatively high. Especially younger adults and females reported more severe symptoms compared to other groups. In conclusion, we need to prepare for increased need of psychological services, availability and accessibility already parallel with imposing restrictive measures.

Mental health of the adult population in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapid Review

“…In mid-March to mid-April 2020, the median scores for depressive and anxiety symptoms were significantly elevated in two samples compared to pre-pandemic reference samples and were interpreted as an indication of a possible increase [ 89 ] or as an expression of psychological distress [ 95 ]. The frequency of depressive symptoms was reported in several studies between 14% and over 35% of participants in the period from March to June 2020 [ 87 , 88 , 90–92 , 94 , 96 ] and was consistently interpreted as a strong increase in the population [ 88 , 90–92 , 94 , 96 ] or as an indication of this [ 87 ]. The level was described as stably elevated until the end of July 2020 [ 94 ] and a further increase was observed in November 2020 [ 90 ].…”

Psychische Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie bei freiberuflichen Berufsmusiker*innen

“…Symptomausprägungen der Musiker*innen gegenüber der Allgemeinen Bevölkerung in der Pandemie [2]. Diese Referenzgruppe weist pandemiebedingt eine nachvollziehbar höhere Belastungssymptomatik auf, jedoch liegen auch hier die Zahlen der Musiker*innen gerade bei den mittleren und schweren Symptombelastungen weitaus höher.…”

“…Die psychischen Auswirkungen der Pandemie-Einschränkungen sind, insbesondere in Europa inzwischen gut belegt 1 . Stark erhöhte Prävalenzen von Depression- und Angst-Symptomen zeigen sich in der Allgemeinbevölkerung 2 und ganz besonders in direkt betroffenen Berufsgruppen wie den Pflegekräften 3 . Andere Berufsgruppen, wie Musiker*innen und andere Künstler*innen standen dagegen bisher nicht im Mittelpunkt, obwohl auch bei ihnen eine starke Veränderung der Arbeitsbedingungen zu erwarten ist.…”

Individual changes in stress, depression, anxiety, pathological worry, posttraumatic stress, and health anxiety from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic in adults from Southeastern Germany

“…Also, for stress and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among the general population of the Bavarian region, no results have been published until now. One exception is the preprint of a study comparing the severity of depressive symptoms during the late phase of the first COVID-19 lockdown in adults from the German federal states of Bavaria with adults from Lower Saxony [31]. However, changes in depressive symptoms compared to before the pandemic were not examined for the Bavarian subsample.…”