JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v2i2.2139 jpsim.v2i2.2139 STUDENT CORNER Pandemic 2020 Covid-19 Takes a Toll on Mental Health Causing Anxiety and Depression in People From the General Population Zaidi Syeda Kisa Fatima kisazaidi23@icloud.com * Alam Adeel Aziz Aisha Amin Usman Kazi Asma Rashid Latif Medical College, Lahore *Correspondence: Syeda Kisa Fatima Zaidi (kisazaidi23@icloud.com) 17 06 2021 2021 2 2 157 162 08 01 2021 19 04 2021 Copyright © 2021 The Author(s) 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives

To determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression in general population due to the spread of covid-19

pandemic. The study was conducted to find differences in the level of mental distress demographically as well as finding

the prevalence among the health care providers and those with chronic medical illnesses.

 Methodology

This descriptive cross-sectional was carried out via an online survey created through google forms which was

circulated through social media apps & websites because of better access to people between 1st – 9th of April 2020.

Demographic information and individual responses were obtained through 25 statements each describing an emotion

incorporating “Hopkins Scale for anxiety & depression” (with URDU translation). Confidentiality was assured so each

question could be answered freely. Chi square statistic test and Z score were applied by taking p

 Results

Among total of 1336 responses, 80.5% of the data was from people living in Pakistan & the rest from all around

the globe. Anxiety was found in 71.4% respondents where 71.4% were females and 28.6% were males. Depression was

found in 79.9% in which 30.1% were males and 69.9% were females (p value

 Conclusion

Anxiety & depression were more prevalent among the younger age group, females, unemployed and

unmarried populations. People with respiratory illnesses suffered greater degree of mental distress due to covid pandemic

as compared to those who did not have any respiratory issue. More than half of the health care providers suffered

considerably from anxiety and depression hearing about the spread of covid-19 outbreak.

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