Podcast 654: Depression in COVID

<p><strong>Contributor:  Aaron Lessen, MD</strong></p> <p><strong>Educational Pearls:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Survey study compared depression symptom prevalence in the United States at the beginning of COVID compared to data acquired by a similar survey for 2017-2018 and found it was three-fold higher</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mild symptoms: 25% during pandemic; 16% before</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Moderate: 15% during pandemic; 6% before</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Moderately Severe symptoms: 8% during pandemic; 2% before</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Severe symptoms: ~5% during pandemic; 1% before</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Those with lower income, less savings, and exposure to more stressors were at greater risk for developing depression symptoms</span></li> </ul> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 10pt;">Ettman CK, Abdalla SM, Cohen GH, Sampson L, Vivier PM, Galea S. Prevalence of Depression Symptoms in US Adults Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(9):e2019686. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19686</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Summarized by John Spartz, MS3 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD</span></em></span></p> <p><br /> <br /></p>