’Psychological toll’ of lockdown peaked in the early weeks

People's levels of anxiety and depression were at their highest (worst) in the early stages of the March lockdown but improved fairly rapidly following the introduction of restrictions, according to new findings by UCL researchers. The study, published today in Lancet Psychiatry and funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, analysed data from over 36,000 adults who had provided responses on their mental health as part of the UCL COVID -19 Social Study on a weekly basis between 23 March and 9 August 2020. Lead author, Dr Daisy Fancourt (UCL Epidemiology & Health Care) said: "It is clear that mental health was adversely affected during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, especially in the early weeks of March 2020. However, once strict lockdown measures were brought in to control the virus, many people began to experience improvements in mental health." In the first week of lockdown in March, 48% had no depressive symptoms (based on the PHQ-9 questionnaire, score 0-4), 27% had mild symptoms (score 5-9), 13% had moderate symptoms (score 10-14), 8% had moderately severe symptoms (score 15-19), and 5% had severe symptoms (score 20-27). For anxiety, 53% had no symptoms (based on the GAD-7 anxiety scale, score 0-4), 24% had mild symptoms (score 5-9), 12% had moderate symptoms (score 10-14), and 10% had severe symptoms (score 15-21). Anxiety and depression levels then both improved across the first 20 weeks following the introduction of lockdown in England.