A look at mental health during COVID-19 pandemic: Here's what experts say

The lockdown witnessed an increase in the number of cases of substance use like alcohol, nicotine, sleep disturbances, anxiety episodes, depressive symptoms, and more, says an India-based medical expert.

According to Kanishk Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO at Sukoon Hospital, clinically governed by Fortis Healthcare, it was as a result of high levels of socioeconomic insecurity, shift from traditional classroom to online teaching, zero social interaction or gathering to suspension of community activities.

Speaking to IANS, Gupta said, "It was also observed that the restriction in mobility and emerging trends of work from home affected corporate groups as the overall productivity of their projects in terms of quality of work and inability to meet deadlines got affected. In totality, the pandemic had a looming threat to many people's mental and physical health, leading to increased uncertainty and anxiety. And those who identified themselves as vulnerable were, in fact, more anxious and depressed." 

He further added, "We are social animals and it is fundamental to our being that we keep moving, connecting with people and others at the workplace of social gathering. The lack of it becomes physically and psychologically risky for the entire humankind." 

Noting that the pandemic brought with it worldwide chaos that affected people's mental as well as physical well-being and the nationwide lockdown made the matters worse, he said that the medical fraternity has acted very rapidly in response to the global crises and the wave of uncertainty it caused.

"E-therapy, firstly, has been on the rise since the lockdown as more people accepted their mental health and took charge of it. With teleconsultation, it became easier for these groups to act in support of their mental distress. Then there were platforms offering chat therapy or those promoting helpful content for people who were yet to identify and acknowledge their mental health. The lockdown turned out to be a latent opportunity for the mental health industry as doctors, therapists, and hospitals took this time to reevaluate the use of technology in promoting, benefiting, and treating mental health."

"We must appreciate the various initiatives that made symptom-reporting, mobility-pattern analysis and contact-tracing feasible for the policymakers to take necessary action; and to those startups in the mental health industry who have been the public with informative content, issuing awareness campaigns, releasing SMS and instant messages extending their help, and trying to reduce the pressure," he said.