ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2021
Prevalence of mental disorders, suicidal ideation and suicides in the general population before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway: A population-based repeated cross-sectional analysis.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Suicide rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- Changes in anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in the European population: A meta-analysis of changes and associations with restriction policies.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2023Pooled it
- COVID-19 and common mental health symptoms in the early phase of the pandemic: An umbrella review of the evidence.PLoS medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Comparison of mental health symptoms before and during the covid-19 pandemic: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis of 134 cohorts.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Pooled it
- Suicide before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic review of mental health symptom changes by sex or gender in early-COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Pooled it
- Suicide, self-harm and thoughts of suicide or self-harm in infectious disease epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Characteristics of participants and nonparticipants in a population based diagnostic survey of mental and substance use disorders. A follow-up study of the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT).Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Rates and impact of mental disorders among Australian youth: prevalence, severity, and trends from two national psychiatric surveys.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- How personality traits shape susceptibility to mental distress in times of crisis: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2026Article
- Prevalence, Persistence, and Severity of 12-month and 30-day DSM-5 Disorders in the Turkish World Mental Health Survey.Turk psikiyatri dergisi = Turkish journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Age- and sex-patterns of suicide trends in Europe: 1990-2022 comparative analysis of official WHO mortality data.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Prevalence, persistence, and severity of 12-month and 30-day DSM-5 disorders in the World Mental Health Hong Kong Study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- Mind at rest, mind at risk: A prospective population-based study of sleep and subsequent mental disorders.Sleep medicine: X · 2025Article
- Global, regional, and national burden of mental disorders among adolescents and young adults, 1990-2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Work disability status following routine mental health treatment: a Norwegian registry-based cohort study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The Ability of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-5 to Identify Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder in the General Population.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Remote work and long-term sickness absence due to mental disorder trends among Japanese workers pre/post COVID-19.PloS one · 2025Article
- Observational
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSelf-report data on mental distress indicate a deterioration of population mental health in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Norwegian epidemiological diagnostic psychiatric interview survey was conducted from January to September 2020, allowing for comparison of mental disorder and suicidal ideation prevalence from before through different pandemic periods. Prevalence of suicide deaths were compared between 2020 and 2014-2018.
methodsParticipants from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Trondheim were recruited through repeated probability sampling. Using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 5.0) (
findingsPrevalence of current mental disorders decreased significantly from the pre-pandemic period (January 28th to March 11th 2020; 15•3% (95% CI 12•4-18•8)) to the first pandemic period (March 12th - May 31st; 8•7% (6•8-11•0)). Prevalences were similar between the pre-pandemic period and the interim (June 1st July 31st; 14•2% (11•4-17•5)) and second periods (August 1st-September 18th; 11•9% (9•0-15•6)). No significant differences were observed in suicidal ideation or in suicide deaths.
interpretationExcept for a decrease in mental disorders in the first pandemic period, the findings suggest stable levels of mental disorders, suicidal ideation and suicide deaths during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. Potential methodological and contextual explanations of these findings compared with findings from other studies are discussed.
fundingNone.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.