Depression and anxiety before and during the COVID-19 lockdown: a longitudinal cohort study with university students

BackgroundFor young people, just as in the general population, COVID-19 caused many changes in their lives, including an increased risk for mental illness symptoms. We aimed to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in anxiety and depression symptoms in a cohort of university students. MethodsThis study is part of broader longitudinal research on university students mental health with data of the Portuguese version of The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Portuguese version of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) with evaluations on January, May and October 2019 and June 2020, as well as socio-demographic information. Results341 university students (257 females and 84 males) were included, with a mean age of 19.91 (SD=1.58). In June 2020, the mean for perceived wellbeing loss was 60.47% (SD=26.56) and 59.54% (SD=28.95) for mental health loss. The proportion of students with scores equal to or above 15 in the PHQ-9 ranged between 22.6% and 25.5% in 2019 and 37.0% in June 2020. The proportion of GAD-7 scores above cut-off ten ranged between 46.0% and 47.8% in 2019 and 64.5% in 2020. Compared with preceding trends, PHQ-9 scores were 3.11 (CI=2.40-3.83) higher than expected, and GAD-7 scores were 3.56 (CI=2.75-5.37) higher. DiscussionCOVID-19 impacted negatively depressive and anxiety symptoms, confirming previous studies and young peoples vulnerability in such uncertain times.