Stricter Covid-19 measures linked with negative mental health: Lancet study

Mental health impacts associated with lockdowns were worse for women and women living in households with dependent children when compared to men of all ages. At the national level, countries that aimed to eliminate community transmission of Covid-19 within their borders (eliminators) experienced fewer deaths and equivalent or better mental health trends during the pandemic than countries that aimed to control, rather than eliminate, transmission (mitigators).

While the first study indicates that the type and timing of pandemic restriction plays a factor in determining mental health impacts, the second study suggests that these are felt disproportionately by different groups. Together, the findings strengthen the notion that stricter policy measures may lead to adverse mental health outcomes and that effective policies to contain the pandemic must go hand in hand with strategies and resources to address mental health for the general population and those most at risk.

“This study adds to the mounting evidence that extreme containment policies, in particular lock-downs which close down schools and entire sectors of the economy, often enforced with a harsh law and order approach, is more damaging to mental health than the virus itself and should be a reminder to policy makers than such policies should be designed, and implemented, with sensitivity to their impact on the population,” said Dr Vikram Patel, Pershing Square Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School told The Indian Express.

To assess how variation in Covid-19 policy restrictions affects mental health, the first study combined daily policy stringency data with mental health data captured fortnightly from samples of 15 countries. Countries were grouped based on their response to Covid-19 from April 2020 to June 2021 as either eliminators (Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea) or mitigators (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK). In mitigator countries, there was a stronger link between severe containment policies and lower life evaluation compared to eliminator countries.

When looking at individual policies, those leading to a loss in social connection and primarily adopted in mitigator countries (e.g., restrictions on gatherings and stay-at-home requirements) were associated with greater psychological distress and lower life evaluations. On the other hand, policies such as school, workplace, public events, and public transport closures, as well as restrictions on domestic travel, were not linked to mental health.

Study author Dr Rafael Goldszmidt, says, “Our research demonstrates that in addition to the intensity of the pandemic itself, the type of the pandemic response pursued makes a difference to people’s mental health. Mitigation strategies may be associated with worse mental health outcomes at least in part because containment measures such as long periods of lockdowns and physical distancing can impede social connections. Strategies that aim to eliminate transmission while promoting early actions and targeted stringency can reduce deaths while also protecting people’s mental health in the process.” At the same time, governments need to provide clear and consistent information about policy measures to increase residents’ confidence in the government’s handling of the pandemic, he added.