Virus drives growing number to depression, drugs

An increasing number of people in the United States are experiencing mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts, and are using drugs and alcohol to cope with stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

The CDC study surveyed 5,412 adults at the end of June and found that 10.7 percent of respondents said they had considered suicide in the 30 days before completing the survey.

The number was significantly higher among those aged 18 to 24, with 25 percent saying they had considered suicide. The figure for Hispanics was 18.6 percent, for African Americans 15.1 percent, and for whites 7.9 percent.

Overall, about 41 percent of respondents reported an adverse mental or behavioral health condition. About 13 percent said they had started using alcohol or illicit drugs or had increased use of them to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19.

"Learning how to help cope with stressors and thinking about additional support systems to address mental health during COVID-19 is an urgent need," said Rashon Lane, a behavioral scientist at the CDC and a co-author of the study.

The study consisted of online surveys from June 24 to 30. It was published on Aug 14 and carried out by researchers who represent a joint effort largely between Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The CDC said the data shows that the number of people suffering from an anxiety disorder was three times as high by late June compared with the corresponding time last year, and the number of those with depression was four times as high.

More than half of essential workers reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom, and 22 percent reported suicidal thoughts.

Symptoms of a COVID-19-related trauma and stressor-related disorder and increased substance use were more prevalent among essential workers than nonessential workers.

The number of unpaid caregivers for adults who said they felt suicidal was 30 percent, and among essential workers it was 21 percent.

The CDC study also showed that 32 percent of women experienced anxiety or depression, compared with 30 percent of men. But more men than women said they considered suicide or used alcohol and drugs to cope with their anxiety.

Social support networks

Bradley Klontz, an associate professor of financial psychology and behavioral finance at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, said he believes that fewer social interactions, such as going to work, the gym or being in a communal setting, is harder on men than women because they may lack social support networks.

"Men are not necessarily great at organizing get-togethers," Klontz said. "They're not as social so they get a lot of the natural stuff by going into the office, running, etc."

Since June at least 26 states have reported a surge in new cases. States that had reopened for business have been forced to partly shut back down again.

After President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 due to the pandemic, people in the US soon began to search for anxiety-related topics on Google, a study has found.

The findings by researchers at the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego, were based on an analysis of Google trends going back 16 years.

The number of searches for terms such as "anxiety" or "panic "and "signs of anxiety attack" and "anxiety attack symptoms" rose 11 percent in the 58 days after Trump's announcement, the study showed. Altogether, there were 3.4 million searches for the word anxiety, about 375,000 more than usual in such a time span, according to the analysis.

However, by May Google searches linked to anxiety had returned to normal levels, according to the research, which was carried out in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, Barnard College and the Institute for Disease Modeling.