Whether isolation or cabin fever – the corona pandemic is an extreme stress test for many people. More and more people suffer from depression. According to the RKI, women and young people are particularly affected. But other mental illnesses have also increased.
According to a media report, depressive symptoms have increased significantly during the corona pandemic. According to a report by “Welt”, this emerges from a previously unpublished study by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Women and younger adults, regardless of gender, are particularly affected.
The proportion of depressed people in Germany increased by leaps and bounds from nine percent in the summer of 2020 to around twelve percent at the end of 2021, apparently due to the pandemic. The increase was strongest among 18 to 29 year olds, followed by 30 to 44 year olds.
The speech is therefore of complaints such as “depression, melancholy or hopelessness”. “Pronounced symptoms that may need explanation” have spread in Germany, quotes the “Welt” from the RKI paper. “The data indicate an increase in the burden of depressive symptoms from October 2020 and a further increased level of stress,” it said.
For the survey entitled “Mental health of the adult population in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic”, researchers at the RKI analyzed a large number of nationwide surveys between April 2019 and April 2022, according to “Welt”. In addition, the mood in Germany was randomly surveyed on the phone. Over a period of two and a half years, around a thousand adults were asked about their mental state.
As a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows, it is not only depression that has increased, but also other mental illnesses such as anxiety disorders. The cases of depression and anxiety disorders together rose by 25 percent worldwide in the first year of the pandemic alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported when presenting its new report on mental health.