Global Health Asia-Pacific July 2020 July 2020 | Page 46
Cover Story
Social distancing measures have led to unprecedented levels of social isolation
Beyond plunging
many into
financial ruin,
social distancing
measures aimed
at placing strict
limits on public
and private
gatherings
have led to
unprecedented
levels of social
isolation
higher numbers of suicides than during SARS because
of its increased magnitude and duration unless robust
measures are taken to address the psychological toll
of the current pandemic.
�eyond plunging many into financial ruin,
social distancing measures aimed at placing strict
limits on public and private gatherings have led to
unprecedented levels of social isolation.
Our daily routines have been upended and
vulnerable groups, like the elderly who live alone
and low-income families, have borne the brunt of
the containment measures, explained Professor Yip.
Many have been stuck at home for long periods of
time without having the chance to visit their families
or friends, while places that are lifelines against
loneliness, like parks, libraries, elderly centres,
museums and swimming pools, have all been closed.
Isolation and loneliness are often key components
of depression, a form of distress that in turn is strongly
associated with suicidal thoughts.
“Usually, we don’t have a single cause or reason
for people who kill themselves,” he said, noting that
financial hardship is a main motivating factor in many
instances, but not all of them, while in some cases
feelings of despair can contribute to the desire to end
one’s life even in the absence of financial pressure.
Within the psychologically devastating effects of
the pandemic, depression is likely to be the dominant
contributor to mental illness, according to some
commentators and clinicians.
The columnist Paul Daley, for instance, wrote in
The Guardian that a “pandemic of severe depression
and anxiety” will follow the COVID-19 crisis and called
for a bolstering of psychiatric services to treat the
increasing number of people who’ll need support.
One result is likely to be a substantial rise in the use
of prescribed psychiatric medications by more people
diagnosed as clinically depressed.
��or nearly 30 years � most of my adult life � I
have struggled with depression and anxiety. While I’ve
never felt alone in such commonplace a�ictions �
the family secret everyone shares � I now find I have
more fellow sufferers than I could have ever imagined,�
Dr Andrew Solomon, a professor of medical clinical
psychology at the Columbia University Medical
Centre, wrote in the New York Times. “Within weeks,
the familiar symptoms of mental illness have become
universal reality.”
“The authorities keep saying that the coronavirus
will pass like the flu for most people who contract it,
but that it is more likely to be fatal for older people and
those with physically compromising preconditions.
The list of conditions should, however, include
depression generated by fear, loneliness or grief. We
should recognize that for a large proportion of people,
medication is not an indulgence and [human] touch
is not a luxury. And that for many of us, the protocol
of Clorox wipes and inadequate masks is nothing
compared with the daily task of disinfecting one’s own
mind,” he concluded.
Many would argue that these warnings are
warranted considering the enormous strains caused
by the current crisis, but we also need to ask whether
our current reliance on a strictly medical approach is
the most appropriate.
“What we are seeing in the pandemic are very
good reasons for all of us to feel worried and
concerned, but these feelings are a normal response
to a difficult situation,� said Dr �ohnstone. �What this
pandemic has exposed is the way in which we tend
44 JULY 2020 GlobalHealthAndTravel.com