They also concluded that mental health effects were the most significant consequence of the disaster, which led to thousands of deaths and deeply damaged the region’s economy. Researchers found that two decades later, first responders had elevated rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One key piece of research he points to is a 25-year retrospective review of the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine. “If history is any predictor, we should expect a significant ‘tail’ of mental health needs that continue long after the infectious outbreak resolves.” ![]() “Historically, the adverse mental health effects of disasters impact more people and last much longer than the health effects,” explains Joshua C Morganstein, assistant director at the Centre for the Study of Traumatic Stress in Maryland, US. Job loss and financial struggles during a global economic downturn have been associated with a long-lasting decline in mental health. Strategies like quarantine that are necessary to minimise viral spread can have a negative psychological impact, such as causing post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and insomnia. The SARS global outbreak in 2003 was associated with a 30% increase in suicides in people over the age of 65. ![]() One reason psychologists are concerned about the potential long-term impact of Covid-19 is existing insights from previous pandemics and national emergencies. In the UK, a group of leading public health specialists recently warned in the British Medical Journal that “the mental health impact of the pandemic is likely to last much longer than the physical health impact”. Australia’s Black Dog Institute, a leading independent mental-health research organisation, has also raised concerns about “a significant minority who will be affected by long-term anxiety”. Steven Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics, and professor in psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, argues that “for an unfortunate minority of people, perhaps 10 to 15%, life will not return to normal”, due to the impact of the pandemic on their mental wellbeing. And psychologists are increasingly raising concerns these may linger in the longer term. ![]() While plenty of us have become a little more anxious during Covid-19, Kemp’s experiences highlight that for some, the pandemic has either sparked or amplified much more serious mental-health problems. This is coupled with a strong disappointment that she’s “regressed” and a fear it could take years to get back on track when it comes to managing her OCD. I very much feel like I'm going to die, and then I cry one of those cries where your body and lungs feel sore afterwards,” she says. She’s become petrified of taking public transport, more concerned about the cleanliness of cutlery and glasses and finds images of coronavirus cells triggering. ![]() “It's like this extra stress makes me pass a breaking point that I was able to regulate better before,” says Kemp, a copywriter and part-time student in her thirties. Since April, she’s only left her apartment near Stockholm five times, after experiencing a huge increase in social anxiety and germaphobia-based obsessive compulsive behaviours during the pandemic. From dining out at restaurants with her partner and relatives to attending book clubs with friends, Susan Kemp had an active social life before Covid-19.
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