Cited by 5,715COVID-19 and Mental HealthLong-Term Effects of COVID-19Social impacts of COVID-19

Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science

Open access
Holmes, Emily A, O'Connor, Rory C, Perry, V Hugh, Tracey, Irene, Wessely, Simon, Arseneault, Louise, Ballard, Clive, Christensen, Helen +17 more·2020·The Lancet Psychiatry

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound effect on all aspects of society, including mental health and physical health. We explore the psychological, social, and neuroscientific effects of COVID-19 and set out the immediate priorities and longer-term strategies for mental health science research. These priorities were informed by surveys of the public and an expert panel convened by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the mental health research charity, MQ: Transforming Mental Health, in the first weeks of the pandemic in the UK in March, 2020. We urge UK research funding agencies to work with researchers, people with lived experience, and others to establish a high level coordination group to ensure that these research priorities are addressed, and to allow new ones to be identified over time. The need to maintain high-quality research standards is imperative. International collaboration and a global perspective will be beneficial. An immediate priority is collecting high-quality data on the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the whole population and vulnerable groups, and on brain function, cognition, and mental health of patients with COVID-19. There is an urgent need for research to address how mental health consequences for vulnerable groups can be mitigated under pandemic conditions, and on the impact of repeated media consumption and health messaging around COVID-19. Discovery, evaluation, and refinement of mechanistically driven interventions to address the psychological, social, and neuroscientific aspects of the pandemic are required. Rising to this challenge will require integration across disciplines and sectors, and should be done together with people with lived experience. New funding will be required to meet these priorities, and it can be efficiently leveraged by the UK's world-leading infrastructure. This Position Paper provides a strategy that may be both adapted for, and integrated with, research efforts in other countries.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30168-1

Cites

126 of 126 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Claims the paper makes

0 of 3 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged

  • Finding

    The paper says there is an urgent need for the discovery, evaluation, and refinement of mechanistically driven interventions to address the psychological, social, and neuroscientific aspects of the pandemic.

    “There is an urgent need for the discovery, evaluation, and refinement of mechanistically driven interventions to address the psychological, social, and neuroscientific aspects of this pandemic.”
    Quote in the paperNot yet classified
  • Finding

    The paper states that repeated media exposure to infectious-disease information can exacerbate stress responses, amplify worry, and impair functioning.

    “Repeated media exposure to information about an infectious disease particularly can exacerbate stress responses, amplify worry, and impair functioning.”
    Quote in the paperNot yet classified0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [82] Thompson, 2017, Distress, worry, and functioning following a global health crisis: a national study of Americans' responses to Ebola, Clin Psychol Sci source

      Not checked in the free run.

  • Finding

    The paper says the immediate research priority is to better understand repeated media consumption around COVID-19 in amplifying distress and mental ill-health and the optimal patterns of consumption to promote wellbeing.

    “The immediate research priority is to better understand the role of repeated media consumption around COVID-19 in amplifying distress and mental ill-health in various groups, and the optimal patterns of consumption to promote wellbeing.”
    Quote in the paperNot yet classified
  • Finding

    Increasing people's confidence and clarity about what they need to do fosters adherence to health behaviours and can help them manage psychological distress.

    “Increasing people's confidence and clarity in what they need to do fosters adherence to health behaviours,90 and can help people to manage psychological distress.”
    Quote in the paperNot yet classified0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites [90] Peters, 2013, Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised meta-analytic test of fear appeal theory, Health Psychol Rev source

      Not checked in the free run.

  • Finding

    The authors say there is an urgent need to study how mental health consequences for vulnerable groups can be mitigated under pandemic conditions.

    “There is an urgent need for research to address how mental health consequences for vulnerable groups can be mitigated under pandemic conditions,”
    Quote in the paperNot yet classified

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The threat to health and the economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic incur a tremendous burden on the population's mental health.

    “The threat to health and the economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic incur a tremendous burden on the population’s mental health19.”

    From A randomized clinical trial of mindfulness meditation versus exercise in Parkinson’s disease during social unrest (2023) · cites this paper as [19]

    The Introduction says the pandemic’s psychological and social effects are pervasive and could affect mental health. The section on anxiety and depression says an economic downturn is likely to have a profound mental-health impact, but specifies those directly affected and their caregivers; it does not establish the claimed tremendous burden across the population as a fact. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Public health officials have raised concerns about the potential for massive mental health impact based on increased stress associated with fear of contracting/transmitting the virus and substantial changes to routine, financial ramifications, and social isolation.

    “Alongside physical health concerns, public health officials have raised concerns about the potential for massive mental health impact based on increased stress associated with fear of contracting/transmitting the virus and substantial changes to routine, financial ramifications, and social isolation (Holmes et al., 2020; Pfefferbaum and North, 2020; Yao et al., 2020).”

    From Ahead of the Curve: Responses From Patients in Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (2020) · cites this paper as Holmes et al., 2020

    The Introduction and the sections on anxiety and social isolation describe potentially pervasive mental-health effects, including stress linked to infection fears, disrupted routines, financial strain, and isolation. However, the paper presents these as concerns raised by survey respondents and mental-health researchers; the cited passages do not establish that public health officials raised them. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • In the absence or ambiguity of information, people contribute to the spread of misinformation or disinformation.

    “Moreover, in the absence or ambiguity of information, people contribute to the spread of misinformation [169] or disinformation, a subject of much recent attention [170-172].”

    From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [171]

    In the section on COVID-19 media consumption (page unavailable), the paper describes rapidly disseminated misinformation on social media and calls for strategies to minimise people’s sharing of it. It says uncertainty can drive additional media consumption, but does not say that absent or ambiguous information causes people to spread misinformation. Citation [169] is attached to the misinformation portion of the sentence, not the separately cited disinformation portion. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, through combined health risk, mass disruption, and isolation, has the potential to cause substantial negative mental health outcomes.

    “The combined health-risk, mass disruption and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential for substantial negative mental health outcomes (Holmes et al., 2020; Kelly, 2020; Mucci et al., 2020).”
  • Telemental health services may effectively provide relief and combat the psychological impact of restrictive measures.

    “Telemental health services may be an effective way to provide relief to those affected and to combat the psychological impact of the restrictive measures (Holmes et al., 2020; Roncero et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2020).”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

9 of the 135 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Wasserman, 2020, Terms ‘physical distancing’ and ‘emotional closeness’ should be used and not ‘social distancing’ when defeating the Covid-19 pandemic, Science, 367
  2. Talan, 2020, COVID-19: Neurologists in Italy to colleagues in US: look for poorly-defined neurologic conditions in patients with the coronavirus, Neurology Today
  3. Li, 2020, The neuroinvasive potential of SARS-CoV2 may be at least partially responsible for the respiratory failure of COVID-19 patients, J Med Virol

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Authors
Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., Ballard, C., Christensen, H., Cohen Silver, R., Everall, I., Ford, T., John, A., Kabir, T., King, K., Madan, I., Michie, S., Przybylski, A. K., Shafran, R., Sweeney, A., Worthman, C. M., Yardley, L., Cowan, K., Cope, C., Hotopf, M., & Bullmore, E.
Affiliations
  • Uppsala University (SE)
  • UK Dementia Research Institute (GB)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • University of Exeter (GB)
  • Black Dog Institute (AU)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • Swansea University (GB)
  • McPin Foundation (GB)
  • Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
  • University College London (GB)
  • St George's, University of London (GB)
  • Emory University (US)
  • University of Bristol (GB)
  • Academy of Medical Sciences (GB)
Corresponding author
Cope, Claire
Venue
The Lancet Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-06
Volume
7
Issue
6
Pages
547-560
ISSN
2215-0366 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3015197879
Cited by
5,715
References
135
Citations by year
2026: 103 · 2025: 218 · 2024: 468 · 2023: 795 · 2022: 1173 · 2021: 1807 · 2020: 1131 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
96.33
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Lancet Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
  • Royal Devon and Exeter Research Repository (Royal Devon and Exeter) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo
Funders
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research
  • Leverhulme Trust
  • National Science Foundation (SES-2026337)
  • British Academy
  • Oak Foundation
  • Chief Scientist Office
  • Huo Family Foundation
  • Economic and Social Research Council
  • National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre
  • Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Government
  • John Fell Fund, University of Oxford
  • Scottish Government
  • Uppsala Universitet
  • NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre
  • Medical Research Foundation
  • Medical Research Council
  • University of Cambridge
  • NHS Health Scotland
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • Lupina Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Social impacts of COVID-19
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, mental health research priorities, psychological effects of COVID-19, vulnerable populations, mental health interventions, research coordination, research funding, people with lived experience, multidisciplinary research, international cooperation
MeSH terms
COVID-19, Mental Disorders, Humans, Pneumonia, Viral, Research, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics

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