{"doi":"10.1192/bjo.2023.620","title":"The long-term effects of consecutive COVID-19 waves on mental health","abstract":"Background Although several studies have documented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, the long-term effects remain unclear. Aims To examine longitudinal changes in mental health before and during the consecutive COVID-19 waves in a well-established probability sample. Method An online survey was completed by the participants of the COVID-19 add-on study at four time points: pre-COVID-19 period (2014–2015, n = 1823), first COVID-19 wave (April to May 2020, n = 788), second COVID-19 wave (August to October 2020, n = 532) and third COVID-19 wave (March to April 2021, n = 383). Data were collected via a set of validated instruments, and analysed with latent growth models. Results During the pandemic, we observed a significant increase in stress levels (standardised β = 0.473, P < 0.001) and depressive symptoms (standardised β = 1.284, P < 0.001). The rate of increase in depressive symptoms (std. covariance = 0.784, P = 0.014), but not in stress levels (std. covariance = 0.057, P = 0.743), was associated with the pre-pandemic mental health status of the participants. Further analysis showed that secondary stressors played a predominant role in the increase in mental health difficulties. The main secondary stressors were loneliness, negative emotionality associated with the perception of COVID-19 disease, lack of resilience, female gender and younger age. Conclusions The surge in stress levels and depressive symptoms persisted across all three consecutive COVID-19 waves. This persistence is attributable to the effects of secondary stressors, and particularly to the status of mental health before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal mechanisms underlying the surge in mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 waves, with direct implications for strategies promoting mental health during pandemics.","journal":"BJPsych Open","year":2023,"id":354548,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7654,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":821306,"name":"Juan P. González‐Rivas","orcid":"0000-0001-7676-7900","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821307,"name":"Šárka Kunzová","orcid":"0000-0003-1868-5856","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821308,"name":"Mária Skladaná","orcid":"0000-0001-5008-3279","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821309,"name":"Anna Pospíšilová","orcid":"0000-0001-6803-3130","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821310,"name":"Anna Bartošková Polcrová","orcid":"0000-0002-3358-8475","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":461079,"name":"Maria Vassilaki","orcid":"0000-0001-8328-136X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1102610,"name":"Jose Medina-inojosa","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":393528,"name":"Francisco López-Jiménez","orcid":"0000-0001-5788-9734","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":461080,"name":"Yonas E. Geda","orcid":"0000-0003-1187-7230","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":393527,"name":"Gorazd B. Stokin","orcid":"0000-0001-8430-8755","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":821305,"name":"Jan Novotný","orcid":"0000-0001-5074-8971","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":58,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:13:11.976628Z","pmid":"38111960","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}