KARACHI: A survey on the psychological impact of the coronavrius crisis has revealed 42 percent of respondents in Pakistan's Sindh province have reported depression, a senior official said on Saturday.

All over the world, rates of mental illness have increased since the beginning of the pandemic.

While research on the psychological impact of COVID-19 across Pakistan is still limited, the outbreak, which started in February 2019, and ensuing restrictions have led to problems such as unemployment, closure of schools, limited socialization, and disruption in many routine activities — all likely to increase the psychological burden of the population.

The SMHA survey, conducted with the Edhi Foundation and researchers from four universities in Karachi, is the first such attempt in Pakistan to assess the situation.

During the two-month study in May and June, researchers interviewed 1,494 people — 757 in the province's rural areas and 737 in the cities. Some 48 percent of the respondents were men and 52 percent women.

"Around 42 percent people have been found with depression due different factors resulting from the coronavirus (pandemic)," Senator Dr. Karim Ahmed Khawaja, chairman of the SMHA, told Arab News.

The overall prevalence of self-reported anxiety was 85 percent, and 25 percent of the respondents admitted they have had suicidal thoughts.

In rural areas, the prevalence of self-reported depression was nearly twice higher, while anxiety levels were similar in both settings.

Neither depression nor anxiety, however, were directly related to the disease itself, as 87 percent of those surveyed said it posed "low risk." Some 20 percent of them have already had the virus.

Loss of income and food insecurity affected most of the respondents, especially in the countryside.

"Almost 62 percent reported major loss of income or earning," the SMHA report says —81 percent in the rural and 43 percent in the urban setting.

"Food source or security was also threatened with 72 percent reporting that they don’t have enough money to buy food."

Over 36 percent of the respondents reported borrowing money and 21 percent selling their property to make the ends meet.

While no earlier statistics regarding the prevalence of depression are available for comparison, doctors have noticed a surge during the pandemic, Prof. Iqbal Afridi, president of the Pakistan Psychiatric Association and head of the psychiatry department at the Jinnah Hospital in Karachi, told Arab News.

"The seriousness of this," he said, "can be gauged from the fact that we have been seeing over 400 patients at our OPD (outpatient department) every day, despite COVID-19 (restrictions)."