Isolation/Covid Impact on Mental Health

[JRTurner]

I found this awesome study on how isolation can impact mental health and what could be expected from the Covid shutdowns. I like this one because it goes into great detail about how the fear of death built a sense of 'threat' in citizens.

Frontiers | Forced Social Isolation and Mental Health: A Study on 1,006 Italians Under COVID-19 Lockdown

<p>Most countries have been struggling with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic imposing social isolation on their citizens. However, this measure carried ri...

www.frontiersin.org

 

[Ug make hammer]

Isolation didn't affect me much. I wasn't put out of a job, nor denied my usual outings to shops or doctors. I did miss Chess Club I guess, but actually my chess game got stronger having to play on the internet (more young players there.)

 

[JRTurner]

Isolation didn't affect me much. I wasn't put out of a job, nor denied my usual outings to shops or doctors. I did miss Chess Club I guess, but actually my chess game got stronger having to play on the internet (more young players there.)

The part that I found so interesting in the article was the evaluation of a sense of threat. Here's one part:

"Beyond the length of social isolation, the virus local spread might represent a key factor in determining people's mental health issues during a lockdown. According to WHO, particular attention should be devoted to mental health in areas strongly affected by COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020). People living in high-contagion areas might perceive and experience the threat differently from those living in low-contagion areas. However, the literature on the relationship between the local spread of the virus and people's psychological well-being is limited and provided mixed results. A recent study on the COVID-19 pandemic showed that anxiety (but not depression) was more prevalent in Hubei province (China's worst-hit province) than in other areas of the country (Gao et al., 2020). Similarly, a large Italian study conducted during the first lockdown showed that people living in the south of the country were more likely to experience mental health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, insomnia) than those living in the north (Rossi et al., 2020). Although the authors did not measure the actual contagion rate, southern Italy had a lower local spread than northern, suggesting a link between contagion rate and mental health. Opposite results were obtained by Ahmed et al. (2020), who observed severe depression symptoms (but not anxiety) in Hubei inhabitants more than twice as frequently as in people living in other Chinese areas."

This made me wonder about the areas in our country, the ones that refused to isolate or wear masks because they didn't see the same levels of infection (at first) that the rest of the country did, might have led to this irrational fear of threats that don't exist. The anxiety that young people are suffering from may not be limited to them--but manifest differently in older people with more resources.

 

[Ug make hammer]

the local contagion rate is critical in moderating the link between social isolation and mental health issues,

This is true across all jurisdictions. Whatever the law said, people obeyed social restrictions more when the LOCAL contagion rate was highest.

This is borne out by peaks and declines in infection and death, being relatively local (eg states of the US) regardless of state restrictions.

Two examples (Australia and New Zealand) show this very clearly. They both essentially eliminated the virus (before vaccines), because of very high community response to lockdown. The peaks of infection were so clear against a background of no infection at all, it mattered to people. Of course, they're both island nations so they had the practical option of refusing inbound flights, but I'm citing them as examples because local transmission was the only means of transmission, and so people responded well to "postcode lockdowns" and those worked. Individual contract tracing did not work, because I think government did not have in place the IT to process that data. As well as people leaving out contacts they didn't think was any of government's business.

 

[HIP56948]

I wonder if people who live in apartments (all types of) are stressed out a lot more than home owners, who don't feel as threatened. Seems that would be true?
Just wondering...

 

[Slartibartfast]

I wonder if people who live in apartments (all types of) are stressed out a lot more than home owners, who don't feel as threatened. Seems that would be true?
Just wondering...

I moved into a house from an apartment in the middle of the pandemic and the peace and quiet of a house versus an apartment does provide for a calmer experience when you have to be home all the time.

 

[Ug make hammer]

The part that I found so interesting in the article was the evaluation of a sense of threat. Here's one part:

"Beyond the length of social isolation, the virus local spread might represent a key factor in determining people's mental health issues during a lockdown. According to WHO, particular attention should be devoted to mental health in areas strongly affected by COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020). People living in high-contagion areas might perceive and experience the threat differently from those living in low-contagion areas.

Well yeah. And people rightly fear what will mostly affect their elderly relatives.

However, the literature on the relationship between the local spread of the virus and people's psychological well-being is limited and provided mixed results. A recent study on the COVID-19 pandemic showed that anxiety (but not depression) was more prevalent in Hubei province (China's worst-hit province) than in other areas of the country (Gao et al., 2020). Similarly, a large Italian study conducted during the first lockdown showed that people living in the south of the country were more likely to experience mental health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, insomnia) than those living in the north (Rossi et al., 2020). Although the authors did not measure the actual contagion rate, southern Italy had a lower local spread than northern, suggesting a link between contagion rate and mental health. Opposite results were obtained by Ahmed et al. (2020), who observed severe depression symptoms (but not anxiety) in Hubei inhabitants more than twice as frequently as in people living in other Chinese areas."

This is interesting yes, but it's common in academic papers to cite papers for and against. In some studies, this is marked as "discussion". It's basically the authors establishing that they're aware of former studies, and not just repeating some other study.

The present study aimed to test the relationship between the length of forced isolation and the adequacy of living space on mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy

This made me wonder about the areas in our country, the ones that refused to isolate or wear masks because they didn't see the same levels of infection (at first) that the rest of the country did, might have led to this irrational fear of threats that don't exist. The anxiety that young people are suffering from may not be limited to them--but manifest differently in older people with more resources.

Of more political concern, is that some states like Florida tried to understate infections and deaths, and by doing so may have suppressed a "fear response" by their own citizens. Making everyone feel better, at cost of more of them dying.

I do take seriously the implication that fear itself might kill people. Apparently, more people died from the Fukushima evacuation, than would have died from radiation poisoning if the evacuation area had been less. Estimation of risk in the future is incredibly difficult, so of course government sometimes gets it wrong.

 

[Ug make hammer]

I wonder if people who live in apartments (all types of) are stressed out a lot more than home owners, who don't feel as threatened. Seems that would be true?
Just wondering...

Are apartments more dangerous? Are they perceived to be more dangerous?

 

[JRTurner]

the local contagion rate is critical in moderating the link between social isolation and mental health issues,

This is true across all jurisdictions. Whatever the law said, people obeyed social restrictions more when the LOCAL contagion rate was highest.

This is borne out by peaks and declines in infection and death, being relatively local (eg states of the US) regardless of state restrictions.

Two examples (Australia and New Zealand) show this very clearly. They both essentially eliminated the virus (before vaccines), because of very high community response to lockdown. The peaks of infection were so clear against a background of no infection at all, it mattered to people. Of course, they're both island nations so they had the practical option of refusing inbound flights, but I'm citing them as examples because local transmission was the only means of transmission, and so people responded well to "postcode lockdowns" and those worked. Individual contract tracing did not work, because I think government did not have in place the IT to process that data. As well as people leaving out contacts they didn't think was any of government's business.

I wonder if they've seen an uptick in fear related threat responses in their communities the way we have here. The isolation, coupled with the dissemination of fear-mongering about crime, seems to have meshed well with the threats felt by the individual and fed into that sensation that their lives were at risk. There was some mention too, of the domestic issues that people faced when locked down together. I know of criminal justice studies done on the effects of solitary confinement and the damage it can cause to the psyche.

Reminds me a little of Murder in the First with Kevin Bacon. Who needs an AR15 when you have a spoon?

 

[Ug make hammer]

I wonder if they've seen an uptick in fear related threat responses in their communities the way we have here. The isolation, coupled with the dissemination of fear-mongering about crime, seems to have meshed well with the threats felt by the individual and fed into that sensation that their lives were at risk. There was some mention too, of the domestic issues that people faced when locked down together. I know of criminal justice studies done on the effects of solitary confinement and the damage it can cause to the psyche.

Reminds me a little of Murder in the First with Kevin Bacon. Who needs an AR15 when you have a spoon?

The domestic issues I can understand. Most people need time away from their family (or household) and sometimes they turn nasty if they don't get it. Shutting so many people out of the place of work I think caused a lot of problems, domestic abuse and suicide for instance. If we could do it all again, I think it would have been better to shut down "non essential" businesses for just a week, giving them time to arrange social distancing and other rules at work, then let them open for business again. But hindsight is easy, also government didn't have to staff to inspect all workplaces and certify them.

I'm more personally impacted by the closure of old people's services. My mother (who is 90 something) had a noticeable downturn in mood when her cultural classes were cancelled, and even I felt more isolated without the chess club I was going to. Some of the meetings were still held, but only on provision that you passed a covid test, which back then didn't include the tongue test, it was only the nostril test which I don't need to tell you is quite unpleasant.

If you lost your job in 2020, you have my sympathy. But remember, it was mostly for the old folk, and they took their share of social isolation too.

 

[noonereal]

I found this awesome study on how isolation can impact mental health and what could be expected from the Covid shutdowns. I like this one because it goes into great detail about how the fear of death built a sense of 'threat' in citizens.

Frontiers | Forced Social Isolation and Mental Health: A Study on 1,006 Italians Under COVID-19 Lockdown

<p>Most countries have been struggling with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic imposing social isolation on their citizens. However, this measure carried ri...

www.frontiersin.org

Trash.

But thanks for the effort.

 

[Josie]

I wonder if people who live in apartments (all types of) are stressed out a lot more than home owners, who don't feel as threatened. Seems that would be true?
Just wondering...

I can't even imagine living in an apartment again. I don't know how people do it. I need my space.