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. 2020 Oct;217(4):540-542.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.2020.125.

The scope of mental health research during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath

Matthew Hotopf  1 , Ed Bullmore  2 , Rory C O'Connor  3 , Emily A Holmes  4
Affiliations

The scope of mental health research during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath

Matthew Hotopf et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on population mental health are unknown. We need to understand the scale of any such impact in different sections of the population, who is most affected and how best to mitigate, prevent and treat any excess morbidity. We propose a coordinated and interdisciplinary mental health science response.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; clinical neurology; psychosocial; psychosocial interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

M.H. declares grant funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Medical Research Council, and Economic and Social Research Council; he is Principal Investigator on RADAR-CNS, a precompetitive public–private consortium funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, which includes contributions from European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Association members, Janssen, UCB, MSD, Biogen and Lundbeck. M.H. and E.B. are NIHR Senior Investigators. R.C.O'C. reports grants from the NIHR, Medical Research Foundation, Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland/Public Health Scotland, and Samaritans; he is co-chair of the Academic Advisory Group to the Scottish Government's National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, and a member of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence's guideline development group for the new NICE self-harm guidelines. E.A.H. reports grants from The Lupina Foundation, The OAK Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, outside the submitted work; she reports serving on the board of trustees of the charity MQ: Transforming Mental Health (UK) and as chair of the research committee, receiving no remuneration for these roles; she receives occasional consultancy fees from Statens beredning för medicinsk och social utvärdering (SBU, the Swedish agency for health technology assessment and assessment of social services), Sweden.

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