Mental illness in society as we learn to live with COVID-19.

Abstract

The Quarterly Journal of Medicine (QJM) has been at the forefront of highlighting significant societal mental health issues in a COVID19 world. We continue to contribute to the expanding literature on this important subject and Wellcome the paper by Dr. Li and colleagues from Soochow University, China on identifying factors associated with enhanced societal vulnerability to depression in a world coming to terms with living with COVID-19. It is well recognized historically that major economic upheaval or natural disasters are often accompanied by an enhanced societal vulnerability to significant mental health problems including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicide. In the context of living with COVID, the authors recruited just over 2000 residents and found an overall prevalence of clinically significant depression of 27%. Factors associated with vulnerability to depression included rural younger females, higher body mass index within a lower socioeconomic group. We recommend this article to our readers.