Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Recommendations for Moving Forward

Abstract

COVID-19 has infected millions of people and upended the lives of most humans on the planet. Researchers from across the psychological sciences have sought to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 in myriad ways, causing an explosion of research that is broad in scope, varied in methods, and challenging to consolidate. Because policy and practice aimed at helping people live healthier and happier lives requires insight from robust patterns of evidence, this article provides a rapid and thorough summary of high-quality studies available through early 2021 examining the mental-health consequences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our review of the evidence indicates that anxiety, depression, and distress increased in the early months of the pandemic. Meanwhile, suicide rates, life satisfaction, and loneliness remained largely stable throughout the first year of the pandemic. In response to these insights, we present seven recommendations (one urgent, two short-term, and four ongoing) to support mental health during the pandemic and beyond.

Prevalence and Sociodemographic Predictors of Mental Health in a Representative Sample of Young Adults from Germany, Israel, Poland, and Slovenia: A Longitudinal Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Specifically, coronavirus-related PTSD, stress, and insufficient PA decreased between T1 and T2, while depression, anxiety, and suicidal/self-harm ideation remained unchanged on average. This pattern of results is partly concurrent with recently published studies that followed changes in mental health indicators over time during the pandemic [15,16]. However, our research was conducted between the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas previous studies have reported mental health outcomes from the first wave.…”

“…A meta-analysis of 65 longitudinal cohort studies comparing mental health before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic reported a significant increase in both anxiety and depression during the outbreak of the pandemic (March-April 2020), followed by a decline to near pre-pandemic levels on most measures except depression by mid-2020 [15]. Similarly, a review conducted by Aknin and colleagues [16] on mental health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic found evidence that anxiety, depression, and distress increased in the early months of the pandemic, after which some studies reported a decline to pre-pandemic levels, while other studies reported persistently elevated levels of mental distress compared to pre-pandemic levels [16]. A longitudinal study conducted in Australia during the pandemic showed that the number of participants with clinical levels of depressive, anxiety, or insomnia symptoms did not differ statistically between April and September 2020, whereas well-being and stress showed a slight improvement [17].…”

Does Spending Time in Nature Help Students Cope with the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…By the fall of 2020, when we recruited our participants, nature exposure may have become less of a novelty, or may have perhaps become less appealing because of cooler temperatures. This is consistent with research suggesting that the well-being markers returned to pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020 [30]. Moreover, some studies indicate that the participants were not spending more time in nearby greenspaces [54,55].…”

“…For example, in November 2020, more Canadians reported having better mental health than earlier on in the pandemic, with similar levels to those reported in 2019 (pre-pandemic [31]). Life satisfaction seems to be relatively unchanged (in some people), according to both longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional research [30]. Thus, we expected that the pandemic might have impacted the students' subjective well-being and contacts with nature, but we viewed this study as largely exploratory.…”

“…Intuitively, a global health crisis would seem likely to result in severe mental health consequences; however, a recent review on mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that the results are mixed in terms of how the pandemic has affected subjective well-being [30]. In repeated cross-sectional research, studies show that people's moods differed during the early stages of the pandemic, when people were feeling more unpleasant emotions, compared to pre-pandemic.…”