No real mental health crisis from pandemic

[Nimbostratus100]

Confirmed by BMJ, after surveys across high income countries across Europe and ASia

This doesn't surprise me in the slightest, despite a myriad of anecdotal accounts on MN and in some other places.

I know I asked many hundreds of children myself, and found more enjoyed and benefited from lockdown than suffered because of it, and mental health charities knew at the time that suicide rates were falling, which has later been confirmed.

Some people's mental health deteriorated in the lockdowns. Some people's improved. Overall, there was a small rise in mild/moderate mental health problems being reported, while suicides decreased.

Can we stop blaming the pandemic and lockdown for poor mental health across the board now, but particularly in schools.

Am I reading that wrong or is the study about people who had symptoms before the pandemic?

The study is showing that cohort's symptoms weren't worse post pandemic?

With a caveat that there is a high amount of bias in the research?

In my area mental health referrals sky rocketed. I also noticed more suicides but they haven't released that data yet. The governments own data knew MH issues would sky rocket. Sounds like this study is whitewashing.

From the Times article
Women were the only specific group to experience a worsening of symptoms across all three areas.

Oh, well, that's ok then.
Since women are half the population, and there was no overall change in the general population, does that imply mens MH improved somewhat on average? (It may not.... depends on the makeup of the cohorts etc)

Dd1 has terrible MH (ASD related) and loved lockdown because she didn't have to confront any of her triggers.

Dd2 had good MH before and developed an ED over lockdown (now recovered).

I think the picture will turn out to be much more complex than this initial study suggests. Some pretty unhealthy coping behaviours were unleashed by lockdown that might only see measurable effects later on.

I dont know anyone young or old who suffered mental health problems due to lockdown, though that might be the demographic of my friends/acquaintances. I think as @Invisimamma says, its got much more to do with poverty.

Here's a link to the actual study:
www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-074224

Its based on global studies so can't tell us much about the impacts of lockdown in any given country.

It notes "heterogeneity" in the studies, and says "point estimates" should be treated cautiously, which means the underlying data they used said different things. I think that means it's unsurprising their results were overall no significant impact therefore, if some studies showed positive impact and others negative impact.

The study did however find women's mental health had been negatively affected - I'm interested as to why that isn't making headlines. If 50% of the population were negatively affected, seems odd to say there was "no impact"

I don’t agree, OP. The real MH crisis was that people already suffering with theirs, or waiting to be diagnosed, were totally neglected for over two years, in some cases dropped off waiting lists and now face a FOUR YEAR wait for some services and diagnoses.
Some kids may have missed their friends, others may have wrung themselves into knots over their exams, Etc. But of course some would have enjoyed the extended home-time.
But your OP is only talking about the kids, when the MH of a nation is also defined by its adults MH…

I read about this on the BBC. It did say children weren't included in any of the research and that certain groups were more prone to mh due to the impact of the pandemic because of their roles eg women. Anecdotally I think we've seen this on here.

@AdamRyan

Lol.

Who cares about women, eh?

Personally I enjoyed lockdown. The FOMO and the pressure to go out was removed. I was able to relax and enjoy things like gardening and spending time with family. I would normally have been at work but instead I was able to focus on my DC, who didn’t have to spend those formative years in childcare. DH worked from home which meant we could get up an hour later and he finished an hour earlier because he wasn’t commuting, and we could have lunch together. There was less laundry so it freed me up to do other things. And people were willing to socialise online which meant I could participate - usually as a mum with a child asleep upstairs I’d be unable to go out.

I realise I had a privileged experience. For some people it sucked, particularly those who live alone or suffer domestic violence. But for me (and for a lot of people) it was great.

What line of work are you in. I’m wondering where you got access to these hundreds of kids.

I think many people (adults and kids alike) with MH issues or on the verge of such issues would have preferred lockdown. It doesn’t mean lockdown was good for them.

Women were the only specific group to experience a worsening of symptoms across all three areas. While the effect was only categorised as “small”, the researchers said: “These findings are consistent with evidence that women and female members of society have experienced a disproportionately greater burden from the pandemic.”

Someone beat me to it but I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at this. We’re a specific group but that sounds like we’re not actually half the population.

Why is the op talking about children not being affected by the pandemic if the research didn't include children?

I work with vulnerable children 0-18, across a wide range of demographics (and their famllies of course) and we have seen a horrendous outcome of lockdown for those children.

We already know that the pandemic has set equality back decades. The gender pay gap was pushed back decades

Women were far more likely to give up work than men

It's not 'whitewashing' by the government... it's a Canadian meta analysis of >130 papers from around the world. It's not to do with the dire state of CAMHS in the U.K.

We reviewed 137 studies with data from 134 unique cohorts. Across population groups, results suggest that, rather than a mental health crisis, at a population level there has been a high level of resilience during covid-19, and changes in general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms have been minimal to small with no changes detected in most analyses. There were few robust studies with vulnerable groups, however, and it is possible that some population groups experience mental health issues that differ from those of the general population or from other groups. The pandemic and the long term ramifications continue to affect societies across the world, and it will be important to continue to assess mental health. The pandemic has affected the lives of many people, and some are now experiencing mental health difficulties for the first time. Governments should continue to ensure that mental health supports are available and respond to population needs. We will update the results of this systematic review as more evidence accrues, with study results posted online^

Actual researchers, with relevant skills and experience of the topic, follow scientific method and publish a study that finds X

Random member of the public with no real experience or understanding of the topic, reads headline conclusion and dismisses everything as bullshit.

No wonder we're in such a state, nationally and ad a society.

It's all alright then, let's do it again. Look at the state of the place.

Yeah a few middle class people got time off work

Totally worth it

Sums it up for me too

The About section in the official research paper says this:
Objective To synthesise results of mental health outcomes in cohorts before and during the covid-19 pandemic.

So this has only assessed mental health up until the ned of the pandemic not how mental health is NOW impacted by returning to normal life -a very important distinction to make I feel!

It makes sense. Most people DON'T develop ongoing mental health disorders from a single negative event or crisis. Mental health problems are more complex than that.

If this is true it doesn't negate the people who's MH declined. My dd was discharged from paeds at 3 with suspected ASD and expectations to come back when she was a teen. Instead she got the dx during covid in year 1 when all of routine went out of the window after her reception start which couldn't have gone better. Until March.

My younger dd absolutely loved lockdown. We are lucky enough to live in the remote countryside with a pony. She rode every day and didn't miss school.

My A level teen really suffered. She missed her friends so badly. She missed out on all the rite of passage things - driving lessons had to stop, didn't meet any boys!, didn't have any end of term celebrations or parties, didn't have an 18th. She still can't talk about it She was that miserable. She's moved on obvs and is now at uni but still gets worried and anxious and that was never an issue before lockdown.

I hated lockdown so much I still get angry about it. Dh went into work every day as normal so I was left alone all day with three teens, two of them sad and bored. Fucking nightmare.

The thing is though the effect on women isn't because of covid or lockdown per se but because of our society and how women get the shitty end of the stick which gets even shittier with any additional crisis be it your child getting chicken pox or a pandemic or anything in between.

So to blame covid or lockdowns would be a mistake imo. Women were already fucked over even more by a decade of austerity policies that hit them hardest and the decimation of public services they are more reliant on and more likely to be employed by.

Much like it would be missing the point to blame covid or lockdowns for the state of the NHS that clearly would have coped a lot better if it hadn't been for the preceding decade of decimation.