A new paper published today in the British Medical Journal for Global Health has found that although lockdowns are undoubtedly associated with health harms, their impact on health is unlikely to be worse than the COVID-19 pandemic itself.
An international team of doctors examined the impact of lockdowns on mortality, routine health services, global health programmes and suicide whether it is government interventions or SARS-CoV-2 which is to blame for the greater negative health consequences.
They concluded that this is “challenging” to determine but that “it is unlikely that government interventions have been worse than the pandemic itself in most situations.”
“The findings of this study are reflective of what we have seen at MQ Mental Health Research. Whilst many people’s mental health has deteriorated over the last 18 months, there have been instances where people have found a marked improvement to their mental health due to lockdowns and changes to lifestyle. As this paper finds, the impact to mental health is difficult to untangle.” Says Lea Milligan, MQ’s CEO.
“What has been extremely apparent is that the impact of the pandemic on mental health is far from uniform. For vulnerable people, such as minoritized groups, children and young people and those living in economic instability, the effects of lockdowns have been far worse than in the general population.”
MQ has been calling for greater investment in mental health research and support for the most vulnerable, particularly children and young people, from the UK government.
In April MQ sponsored an All Party Parliamentary Group paper called The COVID Generation: A mental health pandemic in the making. Following the publication of this paper the Government shifted policy and announced greater investment in young peoples services as part of their ‘Build back better’ strategy. However much more still needs to be done.
“Lack of investment in mental health research and services has been a long-term problem and the result is that when this crisis occurred, we were unprepared to support the people who needed it most. As we enter further economic uncertainty and a prolonged tail to the pandemic at home and around the world, we cannot continue to make this mistake, we need to urgently invest in mental health now so that we can avoid the inequality gap continuing to grow.” – Lea Milligan
You can read the full BMJ paper here.
