Comparison of mental health symptoms before and during the covid-19 pandemic: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis of 134 cohorts (8 March 2023)

Summary

Concerns about Covid-19 related mental health are substantial, but the sheer volume of low quality evidence has posed a barrier to evidence synthesis and decision making.

In this systematic review,  Thombs et al. synthesised results of mental health outcomes in cohorts before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors compared general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms in the general population and other groups during covid-19 with outcomes from the same cohorts before Covid-19.

The study found high risk of bias in many studies and substantial heterogeneity suggest caution in interpreting results. Nonetheless, most symptom change estimates for general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms were close to zero and not statistically significant, and significant changes were of minimal to small magnitudes. Small negative changes occurred for women or female participants in all domains. The authors will update the results of this systematic review as more evidence accrues.