ArticleScientific reports2024
The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health patient populations in the United States.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Respiratory pandemic risk in the Anthropocene: A One Health framework and GISRS+ agenda.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Review
- Mental Health in Regularly Collected Nationally Representative U.S. Surveys: What's Measured and What's Missing?Administration and policy in mental health · 2026Article
- Effects of State Medicaid Expansions Affecting Parental Eligibility on Children's Healthcare Access and Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Maternal and child health journal · 2026Article
- Changes in Cross-Sectional Associations Between Cannabis Use and Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidality in a Nationally Representative Sample of Canadians From 2012 to 2022: Évolution des relations transversales entre la consommation de cannabis et la dépression, l'anxiété et les idées suicidaires au sein d'un échantillon représentatif de Canadiens à l'échelle nationale, de 2012 à 2022.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2026Article
- Simulating COVID-19 lockdowns' impact on depressive symptoms in the northern Netherlands.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Effect of School Reopenings on Children's Mental Health During COVID-19: Quasi-experimental Evidence from California.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Observational
- Strengthening pandemic preparedness in Peru: a qualitative study of high-level leaders involved in the COVID-19 response.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Pregnant Women's Experiences of Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Modeling the impact of hospitalization-induced behavioral changes on the spread of COVID-19 in New York City.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- Moral Injury and COVID-Related Stress Among Post-9/11 Veterans: Examining Longitudinal Associations.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2025Article
- The unintended health effects of US COVID-19 lockdowns: a systematic review.Health affairs scholar · 2025Review
- COVID-19 pandemic as an effect modifier on the association between elevated temperatures and emergency department visits: A case-time-series study in a large population.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Optimal pandemic control strategies and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in the United States.BMC global and public health · 2025Article
- Intersectional inequities in suicide ideation by race, sexual orientation, and gender among US high school students in the pre- and post-2020 waves of the YRBSS: an application of random effects intersectional MAIHDA.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Employment Nondiscrimination Protection and Mental Health Among Sexual Minority Adults.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Article
- Geosocial Media's Early Warning Capabilities Across US County-Level Political Clusters: Observational Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Observational
- The impact of social distancing on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide study of 4.6 million Danish adults.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Anxiety and perceived social support as moderators of cognitive and emotional well-being in populations affected by COVID-19.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, lockdowns and movement restrictions were thought to negatively impact population mental health, since depression and anxiety symptoms were frequently reported. This study investigates the effect of COVID-19 mitigation measures on mental health across the United States, at county and state levels using difference-in-differences analysis. It examines the effect on mental health facility usage and the prevalence of mental illnesses, drawing on large-scale medical claims data for mental health patients joined with publicly available state- and county-specific COVID-19 cases and lockdown information. For consistency, the main focus is on two types of social distancing policies, stay-at-home and school closure orders. Results show that lockdown has significantly and causally increased the usage of mental health facilities in regions with lockdowns in comparison to regions without such lockdowns. Particularly, resource usage increased by 18% in regions with a lockdown compared to 1% decline in regions without a lockdown. Also, female populations have been exposed to a larger lockdown effect on their mental health. Diagnosis of panic disorders and reaction to severe stress significantly increased by the lockdown. Mental health was more sensitive to lockdowns than to the presence of the pandemic itself. The effects of the lockdown increased over an extended time to the end of December 2020.
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