The coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant increase in the number of people who suffered from depression or anxiety in 2020, especially among women and the very young, according to a study published this Friday by the scientific journal The Lancet.
These are the first estimates made at a global level, analyzing the impact that the health crisis has had on the rise in cases of depression and anxiety detected in 204 countries, the results of which have been separated by age and sex.
To date, the authors note, studies had only been conducted in a specific area.
The study, developed by the University of Queensland (Australia), found that there was a global increase of 28% in important cases of depressive disorders and 26% in cases of anxiety disorders during the past year, to add 53 and 76 million of additional cases over the usual figures, respectively.
He pointed out that if the pandemic had not occurred, 193 million people would have suffered depression in 2020, while the crisis has caused 246 million people to have suffered from this disease. More than the nearly 35 million additional cases were in women, compared to 18 million in men.
Likewise, the countries most affected by this increase were those with high rates of contagion of covid-19 and those that suffered the hardest restrictions as a result of the pandemic.
According to the research, women were more affected than men and young people more than older people.
Within the group of young people analyzed, the presence of these two mental illnesses stands out to a greater extent among those between 20 and 24 years of age, and the cases decrease as age increases, while one of the main causes of the peak in cases of depression and anxiety in this population sector it is attributed to unemployment.
Study co-author Alize Ferrari explained in a statement that the pandemic "has exacerbated social inequalities" and that women, "For various reasons, they are those that have suffered the most from the social and economic consequences derived from".
Likewise, he pointed out, children have been greatly affected "due to the closure of schools and the little social interaction with their classmates".
The author of this study, Damian Santo Mauro, warned of the seriousness of this problem and urged governments to make means available to citizens to treat mental health problems
"The conclusions we draw from this study are that the mental health system needs to be strengthened in order to address the mental problems aggravated by the pandemic"added the expert.
Most of the data obtained for this study were from developed countries in eastern and central Europe, North America, and eastern Asia.
.