Addressing the COVID-19 Mental Health Crisis: A Perspective on Using Interdisciplinary Universal Interventions.

Geraldine Przybylko,Darren Peter Morton,Melanie Elise Renfrew

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644337

Abstract

Mental health is reaching a crisis point due to the ramifications of COVID-19. In an attempt to curb the spread of the virus and circumvent health systems from being overwhelmed, governments have imposed regulations such as lockdown restrictions and home confinement. These restrictions, while effective for infection control, have contributed to poorer lifestyle behaviors. Currently, Positive Psychology and Lifestyle Medicine are two distinct but complimentary disciplines that offer an array of evidence-based approaches for promoting mental health and well-being across a universal population. However, these strategies for improving mental health are typically used in isolation. This perspective calls for a new paradigm shift to create and rollout well-designed interdisciplinary universal multicomponent mental health interventions that integrates the benefits of both disciplines, and uses innovative digital mental health solutions to achieve scalability and accessibility within the limitations and beyond the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions.

Highlights

The prevalence of depression and anxiety is estimated at 586 million people worldwide (World Health Organization, 2017), with an annual economic burden of US$1 trillion, and less than one mental health professional for every 10,000 people (United Nations, 2020)
In an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 and circumvent health systems from being overwhelmed, governments have imposed regulations such as wearing masks, lockdown restrictions, social distancing, travel bans, and home confinement resulting in isolation (Dubey et al, 2020)
While there is a good case for universal mental health interventions, we argue that better outcomes can be achieved though interdisciplinary universal mental health interventions

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The prevalence of depression and anxiety is estimated at 586 million people worldwide (World Health Organization, 2017), with an annual economic burden of US$1 trillion, and less than one mental health professional for every 10,000 people (United Nations, 2020). In a review of 34 meta-analyses, Fischer et al (2020) argued that selfguided therapeutic approaches and Positive Psychology strategies (such as the expression of optimism, gratitude, and kindness) should be considered first-line interventions to be used during quarantine and social distancing to alleviate depression, anxiety and stress, and improve subjective well-being. A healthy diet consisting of high intakes of vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, soy, fish, and low-fat dairy was found to be associated with a lower risk of depression Extending these epidemiological observations, a recent meta-analysis of 15 RCTs (n = 45,826) concluded that dietary interventions significantly reduced depressive symptoms across the population (Firth et al, 2019). In the ECLB-COVID19 international survey, Ammar et al (2020c) concluded that the adverse psychosocial impact of home quarantine was correlated with multiple unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and they called for the urgent deployment of interdisciplinary interventions that foster an active healthy confinement lifestyle (AHCL)

A CALL FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY UNIVERSAL MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS

CONCLUSION

Findings

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT