Anxiety, depression and insomnia rose during lockdown: Researchers

There was higher prevalence of depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms among people during the Covidinduced lockdown period in India than non-Covid times, says a published joint study undertaken by a group of researchers.

The researchers from Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute (GBPSSI), Prayagraj, and Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi carried out the study. The study, conducted in April-May, found that respondents living in cities were at greater risk of experiencing anxiety and insomnia while single/ married individuals not currently cohabiting with their spouses experienced two to three-fold higher risk of mental morbidity, said Kunal Keshri, an assistant professor at GBPSSI, who was part of the team that carried out the study.

The study also established that those concerned about losing their jobs or reduced earnings were at higher risk, he added.

Keshri also said migrants had higher mental health problems which might have been eventuated from the hardships they faced due to the lockdown.

The team of researchers including Kirti Gaur, ICSSR postdoctoral fellow at GBPSSI besides Avinash Sharma, assistant professor, department of psychiatry and Hariom Pachori, statistician from CIP, Ranchi utilised primary data collected through an online survey carried out between April 24 to May 07, 2020. The data for study, which comprised over 1000 respondents from almost all states, was collected during the second lockdown in the country.

The findings of the study were recently published in Demography India, the official journal of Indian Association for the Study of Population (IASP)—an open access peer-reviewed journal.

“This discrepancy may likely be explained by the psychosocial factors that have eventuated due to the pandemic rather than any methodological differences between the studies, as the scales used in the present study have robust psychometric properties,” said Keshri.

The researchers shared that around 10 per cent of the respondents had suicidal ideation. Further, only half (47%) of the 1,015 respondents were unaware of the mental health helpline being run by the government even a month after it was launched.

“This highlights the need for adopting more effective means of disseminating information to public like displaying helpline numbers and short videos with general psychosocial counselling through popular TV channels in the advertisement breaks during the prime-time,” said Kirti Gaur, the lead author.