By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Aug 7, 2020: The lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic has led to nearly three fourth of India’s 1.3 billion people experiencing stress, says a survey conducted by the Indian Psychiatry Society.
As high as 74.1 participants reported moderate level of stress and 71.7 percent reported poor well-being, point out the survey results, published July 27.
A total of 1,871 people responded and the survey analyzed 1,685 (90.05 percent) of them.
While 38.2 percent had anxiety, 10.5 percent experienced depression.
The survey, therefore, recommends expanding mental health services to all during the pandemic situation.
The online survey, involving mental health departments of 17 hospitals across the country, aimed to evaluate the lockdown’s psychological impact on the general public.
It also assessed the prevalence of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, well-being, and other psychological issues, says a press release published in indianjpsychiatry.org.
The questions were translated into 11 Indian languages along with English.
Almost all countries are now in a “lockdown” mode as the pandemic has shut down the world completely.
“While the lockdown strategy is an essential step to curb the exponential rise of Covid-19 cases, its impact on mental health is not well known,” the press release explained the reason for the study on the Survey Monkey platform.
The survey link circulated April 6-24 on the Whatsapp platform quizzed people about perceived stress scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale to assess perceived stress, anxiety, depression, and mental well-being, respectively.
The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11 and India imposed nationwide lockdown from the midnight of March 24.
Initially, the lockdown was for 21 days. It was extended several times with some relaxations.
The press release says although the lockdown is an emergency protocol to control people’s movements, it can have some degree of psychological impact on the public.
“Man being a social animal, such restrictions on free movements can lead to anger, frustration, loneliness and depressive symptoms,” it explains.
Quarantine or isolation for whatever the cause can lead to significant mental health problems. Initially people can experience anxiety, fear, depressive symptoms, loneliness, sleep disturbances, and anger.
Lockdown can affect different age groups differently. Parents experience stress when they cannot engage children at home throughout the day. Similarly, people avoid meeting the elderly for fear of infecting them. This brings distress for both the senior citizens and their family members.
Unlike western countries, Indians are thought to be more social and have more social networks, engage in several religious festivals, and gettogethers across the year. This can be attributed to India’s diverse culture and traditions.
A complete lockdown, therefore, can have a downgrading effect on public psyche. It also leads to long lasting effect on the economy, farming and daily wage earners.
The participating healthcare institutions from Punjab were Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Fortis Hospital of Punjab’s Mohali.
Maharashtra was represented by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, and Nair Hospital, Mumbai.
Three healthcare institutions from West Bengal participated: Clinic Brain Neuropsychiatric Institute and Research Center, Barasat, NRS Medical College, Kolkata, and College of Medicine and J.N.M Hospital, Kalyani.
NIMHANS in Bengaluru and JSS Medical College and Hospital, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore from Karnataka participated.
Others were King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Hi-Tech Medical College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Samvedana Group of Hospital and Research Centre, Ahmadabad, Gujarat, Asha Hospital, Hyderabad, Telangana, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, Gautam hospital and Research Center, Jaipur, Rajasthan, and Manoved Mind Hospital, Patna, Bihar.