SynthesisBMJ mental health2024
Changes in the prevalence of mental health problems during the first year of the pandemic: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- The relationship between academic stress and depression in college students: the moderating effect of parent-child relationships.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Two years of COVID-19: persistently reduced well-being and increases in global psychopathology during the pandemic in a representative Austrian population-sample within the COH-FIT study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Vocational factors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in middle-aged and older adults: longitudinal evidence from a population-based cohort.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life of unemployed individuals diagnosed with a mental illness: a cross-sectional study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Effects of exposure to pandemic-related stressors on anxiety and mood difficulty during versus before the COVID-19 pandemic in United States Army soldiers and veterans.Nature. Mental health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of mental disorders and work ability among unemployed individuals in Germany: a register-based analysis of socio-medical assessments by the Federal Employment Agency between 2016 and 2021.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Psychological Well-Being in Adults Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Symptoms Among Students in Croatia During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Postpartum depression during the Syrian conflict, economic crisis, and COVID-19 outbreak in Syria.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo describe the pattern of the prevalence of mental health problems during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and examine the impact of containment measures on these trends.
methodsWe identified articles published until 30 August 2021 that reported the prevalence of mental health problems in the general population at two or more time points. A crowd of 114 reviewers extracted data on prevalence, study and participant characteristics. We collected information on the number of days since the first SARS-CoV-2 infection in the study country, the stringency of containment measures and the number of cases and deaths. We synthesised changes in prevalence during the pandemic using a random-effects model. We used dose-response meta-analysis to evaluate the trajectory of the changes in mental health problems.
resultsWe included 41 studies for 7 mental health conditions. The average odds of symptoms increased during the pandemic (mean OR ranging from 1.23 to 2.08). Heterogeneity was very large and could not be explained by differences in participants or study characteristics. Average odds of psychological distress, depression and anxiety increased during the first 2 months of the pandemic, with increased stringency of the measures, reported infections and deaths. The confidence in the evidence was low to very low.
conclusionsWe observed an initial increase in the average risk of psychological distress, depression-related and anxiety-related problems during the first 2 months of the pandemic. However, large heterogeneity suggests that different populations had different responses to the challenges imposed by the pandemic.
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