The mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with depressive, anxiety, and stressor-related disorders: A scoping review

Christine M Wickens; Veda Popal; Venesa Fecteau; Courtney Amoroso; Gina Stoduto; Terri Rodak; Lily Y Li; Amanda Hartford; Samantha Wells; Tara Elton-Marshall; Hayley A Hamilton; Graham W Taylor; Kristina L Kupferschmidt; Branka Agic

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0295496

The mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with depressive, anxiety, and stressor-related disorders: A scoping review

PLoS One. 2023 Dec 14;18(12):e0295496. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295496. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Christine M Wickens^{1

2

3

4

5}, Veda Popal^{1

6}, Venesa Fecteau^{1

6}, Courtney Amoroso^{1

6}, Gina Stoduto¹, Terri Rodak⁷, Lily Y Li^{1

3}, Amanda Hartford^{1

8}, Samantha Wells^{1

2

3

9

10

11}, Tara Elton-Marshall^{1

3

10

12}, Hayley A Hamilton^{1

2

3}, Graham W Taylor^{13

14

15}, Kristina L Kupferschmidt^{13

14}, Branka Agic^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Department of Education, CAMH Library, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Department of Health Sciences, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
¹¹ School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
¹² Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario.
¹³ School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁴ Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁵ Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: A scoping review of studies published in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic focused on individuals with pre-existing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and specified stressor-related disorders, with the objective of mapping the research conducted.

Eligibility criteria: (1) direct study of individuals with pre-existing depressive, anxiety, and/or specified stressor-related (i.e., posttraumatic stress, acute stress) disorders/issues; (2) focus on mental health-related pandemic effects, and; (3) direct study of mental health symptoms related to depression, anxiety, or psychological distress.

Sources of evidence: Database-specific subject headings and natural language keywords were searched in Medline, Embase, APA PsycInfo, and Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) up to March 3, 2021. Review of potentially relevant studies was conducted by two independent reviewers and proceeded in two stages: (1) title and abstract review, and; (2) full paper review.

Data charting: Study details (i.e., location, design and methodology, sample or population, outcome measures, and key findings) were extracted from included studies by one reviewer and confirmed by the Principal Investigator.

Results: 66 relevant articles from 26 countries were identified. Most studies adopted a cross-sectional design and were conducted via online survey. About half relied on general population samples, with the remainder assessing special populations, primarily mental health patients. The most commonly reported pre-existing category of disorders or symptoms was depression, followed closely by anxiety. Most studies included depressive and anxiety symptoms as outcome measures and demonstrated increased vulnerability to mental health symptoms among individuals with a pre-existing mental health issue.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that improved mental health supports are needed during the pandemic and point to future research needs, including reviews of other diagnostic categories and reviews of research published in subsequent years of the pandemic.

Copyright: © 2023 Wickens et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Anxiety* / diagnosis
Anxiety* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression* / diagnosis
Depression* / epidemiology
Humans
Mental Health*
Pandemics
Stress, Psychological / epidemiology
Stress, Psychological / psychology

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.