The British Journal of Psychiatry

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted womens mental health, although most evidence has focused on mental illbeing outcomes. Previous research suggests that gendered differences in time-use may explain this disparity, as women generally spend more time doing psychologically taxing activities than men. We investigated gender differences in the long-term trajectories of life satisfaction, how these were impacted during the pandemic, and the role of time-use differences in ...

ImportanceMultiple data sources suggest that COVID-19 is having adverse effects on mental health. But it is vital to understand what is causing this: worries over potential adversities due to the pandemic, or the toll of experiencing adverse events. ObjectiveTo explore the time-varying longitudinal relationship between (i) worries about adversity, and (ii) experience of adversity, and both anxiety and depression and test the moderating role of socio-economic position. DesignLongitudinal cohort...

BackgroundThe study tests whether financial hardship and uncertainty have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and the early stage of the subsequent cost-of-living crisis and whether these might explain increased psychological distress among the UK population. MethodsWe derive two cohorts from Understanding Society, a study representative of the UK population. Cohort 1 (C1) starts in 2016 and includes a 3-year follow-up until 2019. Cohort 2 (C2) starts in 2019 and ends in 2022. We provide des...

BackgroundTo investigate factors associated with anxiety, depression, and self-reported general health during "lockdown" due to COVID-19 in the UK. MethodsOnline cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of 2240 participants living in the UK aged 18 years or over (data collected 6-7 May 2020). Participants were recruited from YouGovs online research panel. OutcomesIn this sample, 21{middle dot}9% (n=458, 95% CI [20{middle dot}1% to 23{middle dot}7%]) reported probable anxiet...

BackgroundThe coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a wide range of social and economic changes that could, in turn, have affected the mental health of the UK adult population. Previous research has not been able to measure the broad range of potential stressors, nor examine whether recent changes in those stressors have positively or negatively impacted on common mental disorders. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the stressful impact of the lockdown on mental health has accumulated over time o...

BackgroundThere are concerns that COVID-19 mitigation measures, including the "lockdown", may have unintended health consequences. We examined trends in mental health and health behaviours in the UK before and during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdown and differences across population subgroups. MethodsRepeated cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, including representative samples of adults (aged 18+) interviewed in four survey waves between 2...

This study used two British birth cohorts to examine whether pre-pandemic trajectories of psychological distress were associated with a greater risk of changes in financial and employment situation during the pandemic, as well as increased need for government support and use of other methods to mitigate their economic situation. We identified 5 differential life-course trajectories of psychological distress from adolescence to midlife and explored their relation to changes in financial and emplo...

INTRODUCTIONSince the start of the COVID-19 pandemic inequalities around child mortality are likely to have increased. Suicide in young people has risen in many countries over the last 10 years, and suicide in particular may have been expected to increase over the course of the lockdown, as rates of mental health needs increased. AIMThe aim of this work was to report any changes, and characteristics of children dying of suicide in England, before, and during the COVID pandemic. METHODSChild de...

BackgroundThe prevalence of mental health problems among young adults has rapidly increased over the past decade. The argument that reductions in stigma lead to less under-reporting over time is often presented as a potential explanation. As a first step towards understanding how stigma influence self-reporting in this age group, we examine the extent to which parents attitudes are related to young peoples self-reported mental health. MethodsWe leveraged the household design of the 2014 Health ...

The COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdowns have had profound impacts on population mental health in Scotland. In this study, we examine the impact on the relationship between the number of patients receiving in-patient care for mental health related diagnoses and the number of patients on waiting lists for mental health treatment. Prior to March 2020, increased waiting lists did not translate into an increase in hospital admissions. Post-March 2020, however, we found that more patients on wait...

There are concerns that both the experience of adversities during the COVID-19 pandemic and worries about experiencing adversities will have substantial and lasting effects on mental health. One pathway through which both experience of and worries about adversity may impact health is through effects on sleep. We used data from 48,723 UK adults in the COVID-19 Social Study assessed weekly from 01/04/2020-12/05/2020 to study the association between adversities and sleep quality. We studied six cat...

ObjectivesTo examine the associations between religious affiliation, religious service attendance, subjective religious beliefs and mental wellbeing among the religiously unaffiliated, Christians, Muslims, and members of other minority religions in the UK using a longitudinal design. MethodsWe used data from four waves (2009-2013) of the UK Understanding Society, a longitudinal household panel survey with over 70,000 individuals in 30,000 households which included 4,000 households from an Ethni...

BackgroundHomelessness might increase the risk of premature mortality, but evidence is scarce, imprecise, and is mostly limited to rough sleepers as opposed to more common types of homelessness. MethodsPublished studies were retrieved through a systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase PsycINFO and Scopus from inception to December 2024. Unpublished data were identified from open-access data archives. We used random-effects meta-analysis to combine effect estimates from published and unpublished dat...

BackgroundSexual minority (SM) individuals have worse mental health than heterosexual peers. However, there is no total population-based and national-level evidence on differences in risk of self-harm and suicide by sexual orientation. This study provides the first national population-based estimates in England and Wales. MethodsUsing 2021 Census data linked with hospital records and death registrations, we analysed sexual orientation (SO) differences in: (i) at least one hospital inpatient adm...

There is currently major concern about the impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak on mental health. But it remains unclear how individual behaviors could exacerbate or protect against adverse changes in mental health. This study aimed to examine the associations between specific activities (or time-use) and mental health and wellbeing amongst people during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were from the UCL COVID-19 Social Study; a panel study collecting data weekly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The a...

BackgroundPrevious pandemics have resulted in significant consequences for mental health. Here we report the mental health sequela of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK population and examine modifiable and non-modifiable explanatory factors associated with mental health outcomes. We focus on the short-term consequences for mental health, as reported during the first four-six weeks of social distancing measures being introduced. MethodsA community cohort study was conducted with adults aged[≥]1...

ImportanceMental health disorders were among the leading global contributors to years lived with disability prior to the COVID-19 pandemic onset, and growing evidence suggests that population mental health outcomes have worsened since the pandemic started. The extent that these changes have altered common age-related trends in psychological distress, where distress typically rises until mid-life and then falls in both sexes, is unknown. ObjectiveTo analyse whether long-term pre-pandemic psychol...

BackgroundThere has been much research into the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is related to time-invariant individual characteristics (e.g. age and gender). However, there is still a lack of research showing long-term trajectories of mental health across different stages of the pandemic. And little is known regarding the longitudinal association of time-varying contextual and individual factors (e.g. COVID-19 policy response and pandemic intensity) with mental health o...

BackgroundSuicide is one of the leading causes of death in children and young people (CYP) globally. Over the past decade there has been a steady increase in the number of suicide deaths in CYP in the UK. This study aims to identify socio-demographic differences in the risk of suicide in CYP. MethodsUsing linked 2011 Census and death registrations data, we created a cohort of 7,747,345 CYP aged 10 to 17 years in England. We estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) using generalised linea...

BackgroundResearch suggests that there have been inequalities in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related non-pharmaceutical interventions on population mental health. We explored these inequalities during the first year of the pandemic using nationally representative cohorts from the UK. MethodsWe analysed data from 26,772 participants from five longitudinal cohorts representing generations born between 1946 and 2000, collected in May 2020, September-October 2020, and February-March 202...