New study shows staggering effect of coronavirus pandemic on America's mental health

When vel coronavirus roared into U.S., mental health took a back seat to physical health. number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved.

Schools closed, remote work became rm, restaurants shuttered and getting toger with friends was longer possible. news cycle spun with story after story highlighting ever-increasing number of cases and deaths, while

Any one of se shifts could be expected to cause an increase in mental health issues. Put toger, y created a

Experts

So I decided to collect data on mental health during pandemic and compare it to data from before all of this happened. differences were even worse than I anticipated.

On April 27, I surveyed 2,032 U.S. ults using

results were staggering:

Clearly, pandemic has h a devastating effect on mental health.

Yet some people are suffering more than ors. Younger ults s 18 to 44 – mostly

Why might this be case? After all, virus has

It could be because older people are more protected from ecomic disruptions of pandemic. Younger ults were

or group in distress won’t be a surprise to parents: Those with children under 18 at home. With schools and day cares closed during pandemic, many parents are trying to do near-impossible by working and supervising ir children at same time.

This trend didn’t occur just because people with children at home are younger. Even among 18- to 44-year-olds, those with children at home showed larger increases in mental distress than those without kids.

In 2018, parents were actually less likely to be experiencing mental distress than those without children. But by end of April 2020, parents were more likely to be in distress than ir childless peers.

findings of this study are preliminary. 2020 and 2018 samples, though very similar in , , race and region, came from different sources and thus might differ in or ways.

However, re are also or indications that mental health is suffering during pandemic. For example, calls to mental health hotlines

This doesn’t necessarily mean we should open up ecomy to preserve mental health. resulting spike in illness and death from COVID-19 could be even worse for mental health, and workers required to return to ir jobs may rightly worry about catching virus.

It does mean policymakers need to be prepared for a potentially unprecedented number of Americans needing mental health services. Just as hospitals risked running out of ventilators during a surge of COVID-19 patients, mental health care system might be quickly overwhelmed.

survey also shows just how widespre impact of pandemic has been, and just how many people are suffering. If you have been feeling s about everything that’s been lost – and nervous about uncertainty of what comes next – you are t alone.

[You need to understand coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.

This article is republished from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Re original article here: