The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health with Dr. Dost Öngür

Dost Öngür, MD, PhD, joins host Lorenzo Norris, MD, to discuss the emerging mental health effects of the pandemic.

Dr. Öngür is chief of the Center of Excellence in Psychotic Disorders at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He also serves as the William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dr. Öngür has no disclosures.

Dr. Norris is associate dean of student affairs and administration at George Washington University, Washington. He has no disclosures.

Take-home points

• Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting mental health impact on society.
• Öngür discusses the role of trauma, grief, mourning, and social isolation during the pandemic.

Summary

• One emerging mental health effect of the pandemic is lasting psychiatric symptoms after infection and inflammatory response, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, and fatigue.
• Many individuals have lost loved ones or witnessed someone close to them experience severe illness and prolonged hospitalizations.
• Early in the pandemic, in a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representative survey, 30% of Americans reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, 13% reported increased substance use, and 11% thought about suicide.
• Individuals report greater distress, substance use, and suicidal ideation in the United States, but deaths from suicide did not increase dramatically, compared with 2019. A recent study in JAMA Psychiatry noted, however, that emergency department visits for social and mental health emergencies such as suicide attempts, overdoses, and intimate partner violence were higher in mid-March through October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the same period a year earlier.
• One possible resilience factor for individuals with mental illness may be the protective nature of family ties. Though the shutdown led to social isolation and detachment from some networks, certain individuals came to rely more on nuclear relationships, such as family.
• With the pandemic, mental illness and mental health treatment have entered the public consciousness and conversation more than ever before. After the pandemic, more people will need mental health services as the social effects continue to ripple for years to come.

References

Czeisler ME et al. Mental health, substance use, suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic – United States, June 24-30, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69:1049-1057.

Faust JS et al. Suicide deaths during the COVID-19 stay-at-home advisory in Massachusetts, March to May 2020. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Jan 21;4(1):e2034273.

John A et al. Trends in suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ. 2020;371:m452.

Tanaka T, Okamoto S. Increase in suicide following an initial decline during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Jan 15;5:229-38.

Holland KM et al. Trends in U.S. emergency department visits for mental health, overdose, and violence outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020 Feb 3. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.4402.

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Show notes by Jacqueline Posada, MD, associate producer of the Psychcast; assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University in Washington; and staff physician at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, also in Washington. Dr. Posada has no conflicts of interest.

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