Leading specialists have expressed concern that the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in major mental health complications. In order to deal with these issues, this study examined nine psychiatric symptoms in the general population throughout time. These were gathered for the first time soon before the epidemic and then resampled for roughly a year and a half after it ended. The findings were derived from a principal component analysis of changes in numerous symptoms, which revealed that there was a “general psychiatric burden” in addition to “depression/anxiety,” which peaked in the early stages of the epidemic, but that “social isolation” peaked a year later. Each of these components is associated with a unique set of risks. Through an understanding of these and the implementation of suitable countermeasures, we may be able to reduce the psychological distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It’s likely that the majority of us have family and friends who have turned into social recluses, or coworkers who are sad and unable to report to work. There have been a number of negative consequences on mental health as a result of the protracted stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because people are constantly agitated by changes in their settings such as restrictions on activities, school closures, and remote work, or no job. Some people have gotten sad as a result of their fear of infection, while many others have become exhausted as a result of their stress. Others have been socially isolated and have come to rely on the internet to help them cope with their feelings of loneliness over time. Even worse, the number of suicides in Japan has tripled since the outbreak of the epidemic, and this increase has been linked to mental health issues. As a result, the impact of the pandemic on mental health is a complicated collection of issues that shift throughout time. However, most of the study to date has concentrated on individual symptoms at specific moments in time, and there is no complete knowledge of the pandemic’s influence on mental health at this point in time. This information was gained through a series of questionnaires and exams of people who were experiencing diverse mental states. 

By using questionnaires that were fortuitously distributed over the internet in December 2019, just before the pandemic, and then again in August 2020, December 2020, and April 2021, all of which occurred during the pandemic, the team investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric symptoms. Following data-driven statistical methods, researchers identified four components of changes in psychiatric symptoms during the pandemic. These are as follows: (1) general psychiatric burden, which is the interplay of all psychiatric symptoms; (2) social isolation, which is associated with internet dependence and social anxiety; (3) alcohol-related problems; and (4) depression/anxiety. During the epidemic, the general psychological burden, social isolation, and depression/anxiety all grew more severe. Although sadness and anxiety reached their height shortly after the start of the epidemic, social isolation continued to grow over the course of the outbreak, as shown in the chart below. 

Following that, the team aimed to discover the elements that exacerbated the hazards associated with each component. Women were more likely than males to have deterioration in all of the components. This underscores the critical need to lessen the physical and mental toll that the pandemic has on female survivors. The drop in income experienced during the pandemic had a significant impact on the overall mental load as well as depression and anxiety, which peaked in the early phases of the pandemic. People who changed the amount of time they spent communicating with others and those who were self-employed, on the other hand, were less likely to experience social isolation, which has been steadily worsening over time. In addition to the role of job type in social isolation, the work environment, human relations, types of work, and the ways in which people engage with their colleagues are also factors to consider.

What steps can be taken by society to address these mental health issues? Instead of economic policies being vital in the early stages of the epidemic, policies, programs, and public education aimed at maintaining ties between people and throughout society may become more important from this point forward. Continued monitoring of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on public mental health will, without a doubt, be required going forward. 

Social anxiety and internet addiction concerns arose as a result of the protracted COVID-19 epidemic, according to Dr. Shuken Boku, co-author of the report and associate professor at Kumamoto University in Japan, who also contributed to the study. The following statement is true: “Social anxiety and internet addiction lead to social isolation, and social isolation leads to social anxiety and internet addiction.” This vicious cycle must be broken as soon as possible in order to prevent the problem from becoming more serious in the future. It is critical to retain social connections by expanding opportunities for people to see each other and interact face-to-face, even when they are separated by distance. This is especially true for those who have been isolated from the rest of society as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic.”