Researchers who presented a study at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID) in the US have stated that the novel coronavirus has caused “a global tsunami of mental health issues.”

The report was published in the journal ‘ EurekAlert! ’.

The researchers, including an Indian-origin person, noted that mental health issues already existed in abundance during pre-Covid times. However, the pandemic has led to an alarming rise in such cases.

Study author Vikram Patel from Harvard University said in a statement: “Mental health problems were already a leading cause of suffering and the most neglected health issue globally before the pandemic.

The pandemic will, through worsening the social determinants of mental health, fuel a worsening of this crisis.”

He elaborated that there are so many issues that have been triggered by the pandemic and are now impacting society at large. These include job insecurity, income insecurity, social exclusion, school closures, and working from home.

“There are also disruptions to medical services and care, potential domestic violence situations, and the varying levels of fear people have of being infected by this new virus,” he stressed.

Global effect

Patel speculated that as a result of the global economic recession, the mental health tsunami is going to sweep through all countries, rich and poor.

“The 2008 recession, which largely affected only the US, was followed by a wave of ‘deaths of despair’ in the US, driven by suicide and substance use,” Patel said.

The researchers stated in the study that the relative burden of mental and substance use disorders increased by nearly 50 per cent in the past 25 years.

“These disorders now account for one in every 10 years of lost health globally, and suicide rates in young people are rising in many countries,” the study authors wrote.

“I believe the pandemic presents a historic opportunity to reimagine mental health care, by realising the science which demonstrates that we must reframe mental health beyond a narrow focus on diagnoses, doctors, and drugs,” Patel concluded.