ArticlePsychiatry investigation2026
Long-Term Trends in Counseling for Stress and Depression Among Adults, 2009-2024, Considering the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Representative Study in South Korea.
Article in Psychiatry investigation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDespite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global mental health, few studies have examined changes in the demand for mental health counseling over time. This study investigated 16-year national trends in counseling for stress and depression in South Korea, with a focus on the pandemic's impact and evolving population-level risk factors.
methodsThis study analyzed trends in stress and depression counseling using data from 3,195,912 Korean adults in the Korea Community Health Survey (2009-2024). Counseling was defined by self-reported responses. The period was categorized as pre-pandemic (2009-2019), intra-pandemic (2020-2022), and post-pandemic (2023-2024). Weighted logistic regression was used to assess prevalence trends, high-risk groups, and changes in risk patterns over time.
resultsThe prevalence of counseling for stress steadily increased from 1.54% (2009-2010) to 2.16% (2017-2019), peaked at 3.06% in 2022 during the pandemic, and remained elevated at 2.97% in 2023-2024. Depression counseling showed a similar pattern. Higher rates were consistently observed among young adults, women, those with poor self-rated health, and individuals with sleep <6 or ≥8 hours. Notably, while low education was a key pre-pandemic risk factor, counseling increased more among highly educated individuals during the pandemic.
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic affected mental health counseling in South Korea and led to the emergence of new at-risk groups. Sustained high counseling rates among young adults and the highly educated highlight the need for targeted, population-specific interventions.
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.