The lasting effects of Covid-19 lockdowns on mental health

ABSTRACT

Using the Baidu search index of mental health keywords and a difference-in-differences identification strategy, we study the lasting effects of Covid-19 lockdown measures implemented among cities in the Hubei province of China on the mental health of Hubei residents. We find that the lockdowns lead to an immediate surge in internet searches of mental health keywords including anxiety, depression, and insomnia. These effects remain at high levels after the lifting of lockdown measures and only come down to the pre-lockdown levels after 3 to 6 months. The effect on the keyword search of suicide lasts even longer. These results suggest that previous research that only focuses on the immediate effects may have underestimated the detrimental effects of lockdowns on mental health. Our findings help to understand the comprehensive effects of Covid-19 lockdowns and offer practical guidance on the withdrawal timing of psychological aid for residents under and post lockdowns.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19 lockdown
• mental health
• lasting effects
• difference-in-differences
• Baidu index

JEL CLASSIFICATIONS:

• I10
• I18
• H75

Acknowledgment

We thank Haitao Zheng, Wei Li, Nina Yin, Xiaohui Guo, Si Wang, Chaonan Feng, Xiaoqian Wang, Tongyu Wang, members of Beihang Microeconometrics Workshop, and seminar participants at the 13th International Symposium on Human Capital and Labor Markets for valuable comments. Zhuang Hao would like to acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 72004007, 72134006, 72033001) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YWF-22-WKQN-110) for financial support. Zhong Yao would like to acknowledge NSFC (No. 716710111) for financial support. The NSFC had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing or the submission of the article for publication. Any errors are solely ours.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71671011,72004007,72033001,72134006]; The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [YWF-22-WKQN-110].