Study seeks to understand impact of covid-19 on mental health
3,000 UK adults are taking part in a study led by the University of Glasgow into the mental health and wellbeing effects of covid-19.
Aiming to understand the impact of the pandemic and strict social distancing measures on mental health indicators such as anxiety, depression, loneliness and self-harm, as well as positive mental wellbeing. Scientists will track the participants’ over the next six months and beyond, during and after the lockdown period.
Study lead Professor Rory O’Connor, from the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Health & Wellbeing, who is leading the study, said: “We are living through exceptional times, that people will find unsettling, and leave them uncertain of what the future may bring.
“In this study, we aim to understand the psychological impact of covid-19 on adults across the UK. No-one knows for certain what the impact will be, but by tracking a representative sample of the UK public, we will be able to identify who is most vulnerable and what helps to keep people safe and well.”
Mood homeostasis
Meanwhile, experts at the University of Oxford released a warning that periods of lockdown are likely to exacerbate problems with mood regulation, especially in those with already low moods and/ or depression.
While in lockdown and unable to do many of the usual things people like to do to regulate low mood levels (this mechanism is called mood homeostasis), natural mood regulation is impaired; potentially leading to depression, says new research from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.
Therefore, the researchers proposed supporting natural mood regulation as a new target for treating and reducing depression.
The research suggests that by monitoring mood in real time, intelligent computer systems could make activity recommendations to increase mood regulation, and such an intervention could be delivered remotely.
Maxime Taquet, academic foundation doctor at the University of Oxford, said, “By training people to increase their own mood homeostasis, how someone naturally regulates their mood via their choices of activities, we might be able to prevent or better treat depression.
“This is likely to be important at times of lockdown and social isolation when people are more vulnerable to depression and when choices of activities appear restricted. Our research findings open the door to new opportunities for developing and optimising treatments for depression and this could potentially be well adapted to treatments in the form of smartphone apps, made available to a large population which sometimes lack access to existing treatments.”
The research is supported by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
