Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The decrease in mood homeostasis due to lockdown translates (in simulations) into 3 times more episodes of depressed mood, according to a study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, led by Dr Maxime Taquet, University of Oxford.

Image of the globe with a padlock over it - symbolising lock-down, reinforced by COVID-19 molecules around the globe.

This new study, Mood Homeostasis Before and During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Lockdown Among Students in the Netherlands, shows how changes in mood homeostasis (natural mood regulation) using interventions could provide a fruitful avenue to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's mental health.

 

Vulnerable people with a history of mental illness are particularly affected and this study shows the larger the decrease in mood homeostasis during the lockdown, the larger the decrease in overall mood.Dr Maxime Taquet, Academic Foundation Doctor, University of Oxford.

 

Dr Maxime Taquet, lead author of the study, explains, 'This study follows on from a larger study where we looked at 58,328 participants from low, middle and high income countries, comparing people with low mood, or a history of depression with those of high mood. Both studies suggest that interventions which target mood homeostasis might help lift mood and prevent depression.'

Full study on: Mood Homeostasis Before and During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Lockdown Among Students in the Netherlands

To read the earlier study, Mood homeostasis, low mood, and history of depression in 2 large population samples.