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. 2022 Jan:54:21-40.
doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2021.10.004. Epub 2021 Oct 15.

Results of the COVID-19 mental health international for the general population (COMET-G) study

Konstantinos N Fountoulakis  1 , Grigorios Karakatsoulis  2 , Seri Abraham  3 , Kristina Adorjan  4 , Helal Uddin Ahmed  5 , Renato D Alarcón  6 , Kiyomi Arai  7 , Sani Salihu Auwal  8 , Michael Berk  9 , Sarah Bjedov  10 , Julio Bobes  11 , Teresa Bobes-Bascaran  12 , Julie Bourgin-Duchesnay  13 , Cristina Ana Bredicean  14 , Laurynas Bukelskis  15 , Akaki Burkadze  16 , Indira Indiana Cabrera Abud  17 , Ruby Castilla-Puentes  18 , Marcelo Cetkovich  19 , Hector Colon-Rivera  20 , Ricardo Corral  21 , Carla Cortez-Vergara  22 , Piirika Crepin  23 , Domenico De Berardis  24 , Sergio Zamora Delgado  25 , David De Lucena  26 , Avinash De Sousa  27 , Ramona Di Stefano  28 , Seetal Dodd  29 , Livia Priyanka Elek  30 , Anna Elissa  31 , Berta Erdelyi-Hamza  32 , Gamze Erzin  33 , Martin J Etchevers  34 , Peter Falkai  35 , Adriana Farcas  36 , Ilya Fedotov  37 , Viktoriia Filatova  38 , Nikolaos K Fountoulakis  39 , Iryna Frankova  40 , Francesco Franza  41 , Pedro Frias  42 , Tatiana Galako  43 , Cristian J Garay  44 , Leticia Garcia-Álvarez  45 , Maria Paz García-Portilla  46 , Xenia Gonda  47 , Tomasz M Gondek  48 , Daniela Morera González  49 , Hilary Gould  50 , Paolo Grandinetti  51 , Arturo Grau  52 , Violeta Groudeva  53 , Michal Hagin  54 , Takayuki Harada  55 , M Tasdik Hasan  56 , Nurul Azreen Hashim  57 , Jan Hilbig  58 , Sahadat Hossain  59 , Rossitza Iakimova  60 , Mona Ibrahim  61 , Felicia Iftene  62 , Yulia Ignatenko  63 , Matias Irarrazaval  64 , Zaliha Ismail  65 , Jamila Ismayilova  66 , Asaf Jacobs  67 , Miro Jakovljević  68 , Nenad Jakšić  69 , Afzal Javed  70 , Helin Yilmaz Kafali  71 , Sagar Karia  72 , Olga Kazakova  73 , Doaa Khalifa  74 , Olena Khaustova  75 , Steve Koh  76 , Svetlana Kopishinskaia  77 , Korneliia Kosenko  78 , Sotirios A Koupidis  79 , Illes Kovacs  80 , Barbara Kulig  81 , Alisha Lalljee  82 , Justine Liewig  83 , Abdul Majid  84 , Evgeniia Malashonkova  85 , Khamelia Malik  86 , Najma Iqbal Malik  87 , Gulay Mammadzada  88 , Bilvesh Mandalia  89 , Donatella Marazziti  90 , Darko Marčinko  91 , Stephanie Martinez  92 , Eimantas Matiekus  93 , Gabriela Mejia  94 , Roha Saeed Memon  95 , Xarah Elenne Meza Martínez  96 , Dalia Mickevičiūtė  97 , Roumen Milev  98 , Muftau Mohammed  99 , Alejandro Molina-López  100 , Petr Morozov  101 , Nuru Suleiman Muhammad  102 , Filip Mustač  103 , Mika S Naor  104 , Amira Nassieb  105 , Alvydas Navickas  106 , Tarek Okasha  107 , Milena Pandova  108 , Anca-Livia Panfil  109 , Liliya Panteleeva  110 , Ion Papava  111 , Mikaella E Patsali  112 , Alexey Pavlichenko  113 , Bojana Pejuskovic  114 , Mariana Pinto Da Costa  115 , Mikhail Popkov  116 , Dina Popovic  117 , Nor Jannah Nasution Raduan  118 , Francisca Vargas Ramírez  119 , Elmars Rancans  120 , Salmi Razali  121 , Federico Rebok  122 , Anna Rewekant  123 , Elena Ninoska Reyes Flores  124 , María Teresa Rivera-Encinas  125 , Pilar Saiz  126 , Manuel Sánchez de Carmona  127 , David Saucedo Martínez  128 , Jo Anne Saw  129 , Görkem Saygili  130 , Patricia Schneidereit  131 , Bhumika Shah  132 , Tomohiro Shirasaka  133 , Ketevan Silagadze  134 , Satti Sitanggang  135 , Oleg Skugarevsky  136 , Anna Spikina  137 , Sridevi Sira Mahalingappa  138 , Maria Stoyanova  139 , Anna Szczegielniak  140 , Simona Claudia Tamasan  141 , Giuseppe Tavormina  142 , Maurilio Giuseppe Maria Tavormina  143 , Pavlos N Theodorakis  144 , Mauricio Tohen  145 , Eva Maria Tsapakis  146 , Dina Tukhvatullina  147 , Irfan Ullah  148 , Ratnaraj Vaidya  149 , Johann M Vega-Dienstmaier  150 , Jelena Vrublevska  151 , Olivera Vukovic  152 , Olga Vysotska  153 , Natalia Widiasih  154 , Anna Yashikhina  155 , Panagiotis E Prezerakos  156 , Daria Smirnova  157
Affiliations

Results of the COVID-19 mental health international for the general population (COMET-G) study

Konstantinos N Fountoulakis et al. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Introduction: There are few published empirical data on the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, and until now, there is no large international study.

Material and methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire gathered data from 55,589 participants from 40 countries (64.85% females aged 35.80 ± 13.61; 34.05% males aged 34.90±13.29 and 1.10% other aged 31.64±13.15). Distress and probable depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off and algorithm respectively.

Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analyses and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables.

Results: Probable depression was detected in 17.80% and distress in 16.71%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (31.82% vs. 13.07%). At least half of participants were accepting (at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop depression was associated with history of Bipolar disorder and self-harm/attempts (RR = 5.88). Suicidality was not increased in persons without a history of any mental disorder. Based on these results a model was developed.

Conclusions: The final model revealed multiple vulnerabilities and an interplay leading from simple anxiety to probable depression and suicidality through distress. This could be of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable. Future research and interventions should specifically focus on them.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Conspiracy theories; Depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Psychiatry; Suicidality.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest None pertaining to the current paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Fig. 1
Map of the 40 participating countries.
Figure 2
Fig. 2
The developed multiple vulnerabilities model representing the mechanism through which the COVID-19 outbreak in combination a great number of factors could lead to depression through stress, and eventually to suicidality. A number of variables act as risk factors (red) or as protective factors (green), while some of them change direction of action depending on the phase (green/red). Three core clusters emerge (delineated with the doted lines).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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