Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02438-8
RESEARCH
Results of the COVID‑19 mental health international for the health
professionals (COMET‑HP) study: depression, suicidal tendencies
and conspiracism
Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis1 · Grigorios N. Karakatsoulis1 · Seri Abraham2,3,4 · Kristina Adorjan5 ·
Helal Uddin Ahmed6 · Renato D. Alarcón7,8 · Kiyomi Arai9 · Sani Salihu Auwal10,11 · Julio Bobes15,16 ·
Teresa Bobes‑Bascaran17,18 · Julie Bourgin‑Duchesnay19 · Cristina Ana Bredicean20 · Laurynas Bukelskis21 ·
Akaki Burkadze22,23 · Indira Indiana Cabrera Abud24 · Ruby Castilla‑Puentes25 · Marcelo Cetkovich26,27 ·
Hector Colon‑Rivera28 · Ricardo Corral29,30 · Carla Cortez‑Vergara31 · Piirika Crepin32 · Domenico de Berardis33,34,35 ·
Sergio Zamora Delgado36 · David de Lucena37 · Avinash de Sousa38,39 · Ramona di Stefano40 · Seetal Dodd12,13,41 ·
Livia Priyanka Elek42 · Anna Elissa43 · Berta Erdelyi‑Hamza42 · Gamze Erzin44 · Martin J. Etchevers45 · Peter Falkai5 ·
Adriana Farcas46 · Ilya Fedotov47 · Viktoriia Filatova48 · Nikolaos K. Fountoulakis49 · Iryna Frankova50 ·
Francesco Franza51,52 · Pedro Frias53 · Tatiana Galako54 · Cristian J. Garay45 · Leticia Garcia‑Álvarez18 ·
Paz García‑Portilla15,55 · Xenia Gonda42 · Tomasz M. Gondek56 · Daniela Morera González57 · Hilary Gould58 ·
Paolo Grandinetti33 · Arturo Grau36,59 · Violeta Groudeva60 · Michal Hagin61 · Takayuki Harada62 ·
Tasdik M. Hasan63,64 · Nurul Azreen Hashim65 · Jan Hilbig21 · Sahadat Hossain66 · Rossitza Iakimova67 ·
Mona Ibrahim68 · Felicia Iftene69 · Yulia Ignatenko70 · Matias Irarrazaval71 · Zaliha Ismail72 · Jamila Ismayilova73 ·
Asaf Jacobs74,75 · Miro Jakovljević76 · Nenad Jakšić14 · Afzal Javed77,78,79 · Helin Yilmaz Kafali80 · Sagar Karia38 ·
Olga Kazakova81 · Doaa Khalifa68 · Olena Khaustova50 · Steve Koh58 · Svetlana Kopishinskaia82,83 ·
Korneliia Kosenko84 · Sotirios A. Koupidis85 · Illes Kovacs42 · Barbara Kulig42 · Alisha Lalljee39 · Justine Liewig19 ·
Abdul Majid86 · Evgeniia Malashonkova19 · Khamelia Malik43 · Najma Iqbal Malik87 · Gulay Mammadzada88 ·
Bilvesh Mandalia39 · Donatella Marazziti89,90,91 · Darko Marčinko14,76 · Stephanie Martinez58 · Eimantas Matiekus21 ·
Gabriela Mejia58 · Roha Saeed Memon92 · Xarah Elenne Meza Martínez93 · Dalia Mickevičiūtė94 · Roumen Milev69 ·
Muftau Mohammed95 · Alejandro Molina‑López96 · Petr Morozov97 · Nuru Suleiman Muhammad98 · Filip Mustač14 ·
Mika S. Naor99 · Amira Nassieb68 · Alvydas Navickas21 · Tarek Okasha68 · Milena Pandova67 · Anca‑Livia Panfil100 ·
Liliya Panteleeva101 · Ion Papava20 · Mikaella E. Patsali102,103 · Alexey Pavlichenko71 · Bojana Pejuskovic104,105 ·
Mariana Pinto da Costa106 · Mikhail Popkov107 · Dina Popovic108 · Nor Jannah Nasution Raduan65 ·
Francisca Vargas Ramírez36,59 · Elmars Rancans109,110 · Salmi Razali65 · Federico Rebok111,112 · Anna Rewekant113 ·
Elena Ninoska Reyes Flores114 · María Teresa Rivera‑Encinas115 · Pilar A. Saiz15 · Manuel Sánchez de Carmona116 ·
David Saucedo Martínez117 · Jo Anne Saw65 · Görkem Saygili118 · Patricia Schneidereit119 · Bhumika Shah120 ·
Tomohiro Shirasaka121 · Ketevan Silagadze22 · Satti Sitanggang122 · Oleg Skugarevsky123 · Anna Spikina124 ·
Sridevi Sira Mahalingappa125 · Maria Stoyanova67 · Anna Szczegielniak126 · Simona Claudia Tamasan100 ·
Giuseppe Tavormina52,127,128 · Maurilio Giuseppe Maria Tavormina52 · Pavlos N. Theodorakis129 ·
Mauricio Tohen130 · Eva‑Maria Tsapakis131,132 · Dina Tukhvatullina133 · Irfan Ullah134 · Ratnaraj Vaidya135 ·
Johann M. Vega‑Dienstmaier136 · Jelena Vrublevska109,110,140 · Olivera Vukovic103,137 · Olga Vysotska138 ·
Natalia Widiasih43 · Anna Yashikhina82,139 · Panagiotis E. Prezerakos140 · Michael Berk12,13 · Sarah Levaj14 ·
Daria Smirnova82,141
Received: 11 September 2022 / Accepted: 2 February 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2023
Abstract
Introduction The current study aimed to investigate the rates of anxiety, clinical depression, and suicidality and their changes
in health professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Materials and methods The data came from the larger COMET-G study. The study sample includes 12,792 health professionals from 40 countries (62.40% women aged 39.76 ± 11.70; 36.81% men aged 35.91 ± 11.00 and 0.78% non-binary
gender aged 35.15 ± 13.03). Distress and clinical depression were identified with the use of a previously developed cut-off
and algorithm, respectively.
Statistical analysis Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square tests, multiple forward stepwise linear regression
analyses, and Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tested relations among variables.
Results Clinical depression was detected in 13.16% with male doctors and ‘non-binary genders’ having the lowest rates
(7.89 and 5.88% respectively) and ‘non-binary gender’ nurses and administrative staff had the highest (37.50%); distress
was present in 15.19%. A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics, and everyday
lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher rates of current depression (24.64% vs. 9.62%; p < 0.0001).
Suicidal tendencies were at least doubled in terms of RASS scores. Approximately one-third of participants were accepting
(at least to a moderate degree) a non-bizarre conspiracy. The highest Relative Risk (RR) to develop clinical depression was
associated with a history of Bipolar disorder (RR = 4.23).
Conclusions The current study reported findings in health care professionals similar in magnitude and quality to those
reported earlier in the general population although rates of clinical depression, suicidal tendencies, and adherence to conspiracy theories were much lower. However, the general model of factors interplay seems to be the same and this could be
of practical utility since many of these factors are modifiable.
Keywords COVID-19 · Health professionals · Depression · Suicidality · Mental health · Conspiracy theories · Mental
disorders · Psychiatry · Anxiety
Introduction
There are many reports in the literature suggesting that
health professionals are at particular risk to experience a
deterioration of their mental health during the COVID-19
pandemic [23]. Clinical depression, sleep disorders, and
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was also reported both
in the general population as well as in health care professionals (HCP) [55, 97]. Thus, while the COVID-19 pandemic
started as an epidemic of an infectious agent, it soon gained
a wider content and included all effects on all aspects of
human life by this condition, even the overwhelming burst
of information of questionable reliability and validity (‘infodemic’) [10]. The abuse of the terms ‘trauma’ and ‘PTSD’
is such an example. The vast majority of studies reported a
‘tsunami’-scale impact on mental health. It is highly possible that this could be an exaggeration [96]. In addition,
changes to social behavior, as well as working conditions,
daily habits, and routines have imposed secondary stress.
Higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depressive feelings have
been reported, but it seems that this depends on the temporal situation and the specific events; the response is by no
means homogenous [37, 85, 96, 115], [75, 104]. Apart from
the effect of the virus itself, in addition, changes in social
behavior, as well as in working conditions, daily habits, and
routine are expected to impose further stress, especially with
the expectation of an upcoming economic crisis and possible
unemployment. In this frame, mental health has gained a
central position as an area that is expected to be affected by
13
the pandemic because of its threatening nature as well as
because of the profound impact on the everyday life of people. Especially concerning the later, it has been suggested
that lockdowns triggered feelings of loneliness, irritableness,
restlessness, and nervousness in the general population [90].
Especially the expectation of an upcoming economic crisis
and possible unemployment were stressful factors. Conspiracy theories and maladaptive behaviors were also prevalent,
compromising the public defense against the outbreak. The
issue of increased suicidality as a consequence of extreme
stress and depression has been raised again [25, 84].
At the end of the day, although are several empirical data
papers, their methodology varies, it is very difficult to make
comparisons among countries and it is also difficult to arrive
at universally valid conclusions [55, 97]. Additionally, the
literature is full of opinion papers, viewpoints, perspectives,
guidelines, and narrations of activities to cope with the pandemic. These borrow from previous experiences with different pandemics and utilize common sense, but, as a result,
they often obscure rather than clarify the landscape. The role
of mass and social media has been discussed but remains
poorly understood in empirical terms.
An early meta-analysis reported high rates of anxiety
(25%) and depression (28%) in the general population [86]
while a second one reported that 29.6% of people experienced stress, 31.9% anxiety and 33.7% depression [92].
Not only do we need more reliable and valid data, but we
also need to identify risk and protective factors to be able to
recommend measures that will eventually improve public
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
health by preventing the adverse impact on mental health
and simultaneously improve health-related behaviors [4, 47,
73, 75].
The aim of the current study was to investigate the rates
of anxiety, clinical depression, and suicidality and their
changes in health professionals aged 18–69 internationally,
during the COVID-19 pandemic. The secondary aims were
to investigate their relations with several personal, interpersonal/social, and lifestyle variables. The aim also included
the investigation of the spreading of conspiracy theories concerning the COVID-19 outbreak and their relationship with
mental health in this specific population group.
Materials and methods
Methods
The protocol used is available in the webappendix; each
question was given an ID code; these ID codes were used
throughout the results for increased accuracy.
According to a previously developed method, [39, 40, 42]
the cut-off score of 23/24 for the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale and a derived algorithm were used to identify cases of clinical depression. This
algorithm utilized the weighted scores of selected CES-D
items to arrive at the diagnosis of clinical depression, and
has already been validated. Cases identified by only either
method were considered cases of distress (false positive
cases in terms of depression), while cases identified by both
the cut-off and the algorithm were considered as clinical
depression. The State-Trate Anxiety Inventory-State form
(STAI-S) [100] and the Risk for Assessment of Suicidality
Scale (RASS) [42] were used to assess anxiety and suicidality respectively.
The data were collected online and anonymously from
April 2020 through March 2021, covering periods of full
implementation of lockdowns as well as of relaxations of
measures in countries around the world. Announcements and
advertisements were done on the social media and through
news sites, but no other organized effort had been undertaken. The first page included a declaration of consent which
everybody accepted by continuing with the participation.
Approval was initially given by the Ethics Committee
of the Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and locally concerning each participating
country.
Materials
The data came from the larger COMET-G study [41].
The study population was self-selected. It was not possible to apply post-stratification on the sample as it was done
in a previous study [40], because this would mean that we
would utilize a similar methodology across many different
countries and the population data needed were not available
for all.
Statistical analysis
• Chi-square tests were used for the comparison of fre-
quencies when categorical variables were present and for
the post hoc analysis of the results a Bonferroni-corrected
method of pair-wise comparisons was utilized [69].
• Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to
test for the main effect as well as the interaction among
grouping variables concerning continuous variables. The
Scheffe test was used as the post-hoc test.
• Multiple forward stepwise linear regression analysis
(MFSLRA) was performed to investigate which variables could function as predictors and contribute to the
development of others (e.g. clinical depression).
To correct for multiple comparisons, the level of p<0.001
was accepted as the level of significance for ANOVA and
MFSLRA results (but not for post-hoc tests)
Results
Demographics
From the 55,589 responses from 40 countries (Table 1) of
the COMET study, 23.01% reported they were working in
the health field. Thus, the study sample of the current paper
includes 12,792 health professionals (N = 7983–62.40%
women aged 39.76 ± 11.70; N = 4709–36.81% men aged
35.91 ± 11.00 and N = 100–0.78% non-binary gender
aged 35.15 ± 13.03). The contribution of each country
and the gender and age composition are shown in Table 1.
The sex-by-specific occupation composition is shown in
Table 2. The sociodemographic characteristics are shown
in webtables 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 of the appendix. Details concerning various sociodemographic variables (marital status,
education, work, etc. are shown in the webappendix, in
webtables 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).
History of health
Moderate or bad somatic health was reported by 16.70%
and the presence of a chronic medical somatic condition
was reported by 21.29%. Detailed results are shown in webtable 8. Being either relatives or caretakers of vulnerable persons was reported by 46.88% (webtable 9).
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Table 1 List of participating countries by sex, with number of subjects and mean age
Country
Argentina
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
Croatia
Egypt
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Honduras
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kyrgyz Republic
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Mexico
Nigeria
Pakistan
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Spain
Turkey
Ukraine
UK
USA
Total
Men
Women
Non-binary gender
Age
Age
Age
N
%
Mean
SD
N
%
Mean
SD
N
%
Mean
SD
N
%
439
21
70
1681
200
86
202
142
86
1041
24
64
48
15
624
74
146
3044
909
28
257
182
614
1036
271
311
447
752
575
56
286
16
293
3825
152
330
95
306
55
124
18,927
20.14
30.43
19.89
55.42
18.30
40.19
26.47
27.73
26.71
35.91
14.55
24.33
11.59
25.00
18.26
33.48
19.13
61.01
27.68
19.44
26.22
70.00
27.76
39.72
21.54
32.29
25.03
65.22
28.24
36.13
18.58
18.82
20.22
38.50
25.08
31.82
27.38
21.07
34.38
30.32
34.05
44.53
33.67
36.20
24.09
38.62
31.36
14.39
8.05
10.33
5.24
12.46
13.06
14.49
7.89
11.46
5.48
11.11
9.97
16
17.29
26.00
27.42
0.00
8.88
42.57
39.57
42.32
39.66
37.89
32.06
34.87
34.00
32.05
41.36
31.59
30.49
38.97
41.22
41.71
38.87
45.26
40.16
39.24
38.18
25.83
23.45
38.72
33.65
42.34
46.77
31.74
41.84
48.52
25.05
39.09
44.56
37.78
35.80
14.00
15.08
11.84
11.82
15.53
9.04
13.98
9.87
11.09
11.95
11.97
11.42
13.56
14.17
11.10
14.58
14.64
12.75
11.71
14.74
7.55
4.42
14.03
11.24
13.77
14.21
12.25
11.77
13.53
7.36
13.13
11.95
14.51
13.61
0.73
0.00
0.57
0.63
0.00
0.47
0.39
0.59
0.62
0.79
0.00
0.76
0.48
0.00
0.64
0.00
0.00
0.56
0.52
0.00
0.61
0.00
1.67
0.08
0.32
7.68
0.39
0.35
0.79
0.00
0.91
1.18
0.83
2.66
0.17
0.39
0.86
0.96
0.00
2.93
1.11
37.44
15.49
15.43
11.70
14.18
14.70
6.82
18.58
10.58
7.17
11.95
8.94
12.06
18.24
16.17
11.61
14.16
12.38
13.62
12.08
16.13
7.46
6.35
15.80
11.54
18.22
14.45
12.03
11.94
14.85
6.26
15.38
11.12
15.47
13.29
79.13
69.57
79.55
43.95
81.70
59.35
73.13
71.68
72.67
63.30
85.45
74.90
87.92
75.00
81.10
66.52
80.87
38.42
71.80
80.56
73.16
30.00
70.57
60.20
78.14
60.02
74.58
34.43
70.97
63.87
80.51
80.00
78.95
58.85
74.75
67.79
71.76
77.96
65.63
66.75
64.85
40.60
32.63
37.71
23.98
39.15
28.80
42.24
40.76
41.73
37.38
38.98
30.77
48.93
36.55
28.19
44.60
33.51
33.64
48.79
43.10
45.31
36.38
48.18
39.34
41.95
36.84
30.30
25.46
43.80
33.46
43.31
47.54
30.34
39.16
51.49
25.03
38.42
43.53
37.50
34.90
1725
48
280
1333
893
127
558
367
234
1835
141
197
364
45
2772
147
617
1917
2358
116
717
78
1561
1570
983
578
1332
397
1445
99
1239
68
1144
5847
453
703
249
1132
105
273
36,047
2180
69
352
3033
1093
214
763
512
322
2899
165
263
414
60
3418
221
763
4989
3284
144
980
260
2212
2608
1258
963
1786
1153
2036
155
1539
85
1449
9936
606
1037
347
1452
160
409
55,589
3.92
0.12
0.63
5.46
1.97
0.38
1.37
0.92
0.58
5.22
0.30
0.47
0.74
0.11
6.15
0.40
1.37
8.97
5.91
0.26
1.76
0.47
3.98
4.69
2.26
1.73
3.21
2.07
3.66
0.28
2.77
0.15
2.61
17.87
1.09
1.87
0.62
2.61
0.29
0.74
100.00
In terms of mental health history and self-harm, 8.59%
had a prior history of an anxiety disorder, 10.93% of depression, 0.71% of Bipolar disorder, 0.42% of psychosis, and
2.90% of other mental disorder. Any mental disorder history
13
2
19
1
3
3
2
23
2
2
22
28
17
6
37
2
4
74
7
4
16
14
1
12
264
1
4
3
14
12
615
31.00
46.33
42.50
44.26
17.79
16.26
13.75
27.50
33.50
10.61
6.36
29.59
6.68
28.36
28.00
7.86
11.62
42.17
21.14
33.57
48.00
40.75
39.03
22.86
31.75
24.75
12.60
18.38
12.89
12.66
4.78
7.97
10.93
31.21
38.00
51.58
27.64
58.00
50.00
21.33
35.93
14.67
28.00
31.64
9.78
13.15
15.45
10.87
13.11
0.58
17.88
was present in 23.58%. At least once, 17.20% had hurt themselves in the past and 8.20% had attempted at least once in
the past. The detailed rates by sex and country are shown in
webtable 10.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Table 2 Sex-by-occupation
composition and rates of
clinical depression and distress
%
Age
Mean
Administrative staff in hospital (4.10%)
Women
64.35
40.29
Men
34.10
38.01
Non-binary gender
1.54
39.00
Total
Doctor (42.66%)
Women
70.70
39.88
Men
28.67
40.21
Non-binary gender
0.63
37.35
Total
Nurse (10.89%)
Women
87.22
41.11
Men
12.20
34.99
Non-binary gender
0.58
32.00
Total
Other healthcare profession (36.21%)
Women
44.97
38.77
Men
54.36
33.34
Non-binary gender
0.68
36.35
Total
Other hospital staff (6.14%)
Women
60.05
39.35
Men
37.63
34.40
Non-binary gender
2.32
28.61
Total
Total study sample
Women
62.40
39.76
Men
36.81
35.91
Non-binary gender
0.78
35.15
Total
100.00
38.31
Distress %
Clinical
Distress plus clinidepression % cal depression (%)
11.14
10.83
12.42
12.28
13.56
37.50
13.10
17.37
15.82
37.50
17.15
29.64
29.38
75.00
30.25
11.84
13.42
15.25
15.36
14.03
35.29
15.11
15.23
7.89
5.88
13.07
30.60
21.91
41.18
28.17
11.90
11.25
12.74
14.49
16.67
0.00
14.67
16.65
11.31
37.50
16.12
31.14
27.98
37.50
30.79
11.31
7.87
11.57
15.69
14.54
29.03
15.16
14.81
9.60
16.13
11.99
30.50
24.15
45.16
27.15
11.78
12.43
9.58
17.38
18.84
33.33
18.30
15.45
14.38
22.22
15.21
32.83
33.22
55.56
33.51
11.70
11.00
13.03
11.61
15.30
14.68
30.30
15.19
15.44
9.63
17.17
13.31
30.75
24.31
47.47
28.50
SD
Family
Present mental health
In terms of family status, 57.86% were married, 60.02%
had at least one child and only 11.42% were living alone.
The responses suggested an increased need for communication with family members in 41.79%, an increased
need for emotional support in 30.26%, fewer conflicts
in 37.36% and increased conflicts within families for
17.77%, an improvement of the quality of relationships
in 25.62%, while in most cases (90.18%) there was maintenance of basic daily routine at least somehow (webtable 11). During lockdowns 80.81% continued to work,
while 47.65% expected their economic situation to worsen
because of the COVID-19 outbreak (webtable 12).
Concerning mental health, data 47.15% reported an increase
in anxiety, and 39.95% reported a worsening in depressive
affect. Suicidal thoughts were increased in 10.48%. Overall, current clinical depression was present in 13.16% of
the study sample (unweighted average) with male doctors
and ‘non-binary genders’ having the lowest rates (7.89
and 5.88%, respectively) and ‘non-binary gender’ nurses
and administrative staff having the highest (37.50%). In
detail, the results are shown in Table 2. However, after taking into consideration the expected rates of current clinical depression in the population, men with positive history
had the highest Relative Risk (RR = 6.47) while the lowest
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
was observed in women without a history of mental disorder (RR = 1.81). Additionally, distress was present in
15.19%, with the highest rates being for ‘non-binary genders’ (> 30%) and the lowest for female administrative staff
(12.28%). The complete rates by sex and occupation are
shown in webtable 17.
Suicidal tendencies doubled according to RASS subscales
scores (webtable 17) and in comparison to what is expected
[42].
Persons with a history of mental disorders had higher
rates of current clinical depression (24.64% vs. 9.62%, chisquare test = 454.90; df = 1; p < 0.0001) (webtable 14). In
persons without mental health history, the RR ranged from
2.14 to 2.90. In persons with a mental health history, the
RR was highest in those with a psychotic history (Bipolar disorder RR = 9.04; Psychosis RR = 8.08) and ranged
between 3.82 and 6.40 for non-psychotic history, with the
lowest RR in persons with a history of ‘other mental disorder’, in comparison to the expected prevalence of depression
(3% for men and 6% for women). Of women with clinical
depression, half were new cases (without any past history of
mental disorder) while this was true for two thirds of men.
Taking into consideration that the pandemic increased the
risk by definition, the risk to develop clinical depression
during the pandemic when having a previous history was
highest for bipolar disorder (RR = 4.23), while the previous
history of self-harm or suicidal attempts did not increase
the risk (Table 3).
The mean scale scores were 43.52 ± 11.99 for the STAIS, 19.36 ± 8.17 for the CES-D, and 70.23 ± 134.74 for the
Intention subscale of the RASS. The complete results by sex
and country are shown in webtable 17.
Table 3 Relative Risk (RR) to develop clinical depression vs. participants with no mental health history and no history of self-harm or
suicidal acts
History
No previous history at all
Any mental disorder
Anxiety
Clinical depression
Bipolar disorder
Psychosis
Other
Only history of self-harm/attempt
13
Risk to develop clinical depression
When alone
When history
of self-harm/
attempt is
also present
%
RR
%
RR
9.62
31.81
19.93
28.81
40.66
36.36
17.20
17.89
1.00
3.31
2.07
2.99
4.23
3.78
1.79
1.86
29.87
29.49
30.46
30.78
30.93
30.52
1.0
3.11
3.07
3.17
3.20
3.22
3.17
From the total sample, 5.17% reported that they often
thought much or very much about committing suicide if they
had the chance. Men and women had similar rates (5.76%
vs. 4.69%) but those self-identified as ‘non-binary gender’
had much higher rates (17.00%). In subjects with a history of
psychotic disorder or self-harm/attempt the rate was 15.45%
while in those with a history of non-psychotic disorder, it
was 9.76%. In persons free of any mental disorder or selfharm/attempt history the rate was as low as 2.09%. This
means that the RR for the manifestation of at least moderate
suicidal thoughts was equal to 7.4 for psychotic history and
3.7 for non-psychotic history. In those identified as ‘nonbinary gender’, the RR was approximately equal to 3.5.
Beliefs in conspiracy theories
Approximately one third of responders accepted at least a
moderate degree some non-bizarre conspiracy theory. The
acceptance of inflated death rates was 44.24% while that of
the 5G antenna theory was 20.81%. Doctors had the lowest rates, but impressively, 37.6% of doctors and 50.86% of
nurses reported they were believing in the deliberate inflation of death rates by governments and 14.75% and 27.22%
respectively were accepting the 5G theory. In detail, the
responses by sex and country are shown in webtable 21.
Modeling of mental health changes
during the pandemic
The presence of any mental health history acted as a risk
factor for the development of current clinical depression
with all chi-square tests being significant at p < 0.001.
Interestingly a history of self-harm or suicidality emerged
as a risk factor even for persons without reporting mental
health history. In persons with only a history of self-harm
or suicidality, 17.89% developed clinical depression. The
combination of both self-harm and suicidal attempts history
with specific mental health history revealed that subjects
without any such history at all had the lowest rate or current
clinical depression (9.62%), while the presence of previous
self-harm/attempts increased the risk in subjects with past
anxiety (29.49%) and other mental disorders (30.52%), but
not clinical depression (30.46%), Bipolar disorder (30.78%)
and psychoses (30.93%). The highest relative risk (RR) was
calculated for history of Bipolar disorder but history of selfharm/attempt played no role (RR = 4.23). All RR values are
shown in Table 2 and webtable 22. After taking into consideration that the annual incidence of depression is 0.3% [66],
the calculated risk because of the pandemic for the health
professionals population to develop clinical depression is
RR = 30 Fig. 1.
The presence of a chronic somatic condition acted as
a significant but weak risk factor for the development of
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Fig. 1 Map of the 40 participating countries
clinical depression (Chi-square = 14.61, df = 1, p < 0.001;
In terms of rates, 15.35% of those with a chronic somatic
condition manifested clinical depression vs. 12.56% of those
without (RR = 1.22).
The results of the MFSLRA suggested that a significant
number of variables acted either as risk or as protective factors (Table 4, Fig. 2, webtable 23). These factors explained
16.1% of the change in anxiety, 11.6% of change in depressive affect, 19.1% of the development of distress or clinical
depression, and 5.1% of change in suicidal thoughts. The
individual contribution of each predictor separately was very
small (many b coefficients were very close to zero).
If we consider a more or less linear continuum from fear
to anxiety to depressive emotions to clinical depression and
eventually to suicidality, the model which can be derived
suggests there is a core of variables (Fig. 2, webfigure 1) that
exert a stable either adverse or protective effect throughout
the course of the development of the mental state.
Factorial ANOVA with the scores of STAI-S, CES-D and
RASS as continuous variables and sex and being a doctor or
a nurse as grouping variables was always significant for sex
(p < 0.0001). For doctors only the interaction with sex is significant (Wilks = 0.996, F = 4.86, df = 10, error df = 25,562,
p < 0.0001), with ‘non-binary genders’ having higher psychopathology. For nurses it was significant both independently (Wilks = 0.999, F = 7.768, df = 10, error df = 25,562,
p = 0.009) as well as in interaction with sex (Wilks = 0.998,
F = 2.618, df = 10, error df = 25,562, p = 0.004). Overall
nurses had lower psychopathological scores than the rest.
The Scheffe post-hoc tests (at p < 0.05) revealed that most
groups defined by sex and occupation differed from each
other in a complex and difficult-to-explain matrix.
Conspiracy theories manifest a complex behavior with
some of them exerting a protective effect at certain phases
(Fig. 2), but their overall impact was lower in comparison
to the general population. The mean scores of responses to
questions pertaining to different conspiracy beliefs by history of any mental disorder and current clinical depression
are shown in Table 5 and webtable 24. Factorial ANOVA
suggested that history of any mental disorder and current
clinical depression as well as their interaction were significant factors concerning the belief in conspiracy theories
(Table 5). The results of post-hoc tests are shown in webtable 25. They suggest that persons with a history of mental
disorder have lower overall tendency in believing in both
the threatening and the reassuring conspiracy theories. Not
believing in any conspiracy theory had a different composition with history of having any mental disorder being the
determining factor leading to lower adaption of conspiracy
theories and with depression acting at a second level and further decreasing this tendency. These findings were consistent
across disorders and conspiracy theories.
Discussion
This large international study in a convenient sample of
12,792 health professionals from 40 countries detected clinical depression in 13.31% (unweighted average) with men
and ‘non-binary genders’ doctors having the lowest rates
(7.89% and 5.88% respectively) and ‘non-binary gender’
nurses and administrative staff having the highest (37.50%).
Distress was present in 15.19%, with the highest rates being
for the ‘non-binary gender’ (> 30%) and the lowest for
female administrative staff (12.28%). A significant percentage reported a deterioration in mental state, family dynamics and everyday lifestyle. Persons with a history of mental
disorders had higher rates of current clinical depression
13
13
Table 4 Results of four separate Multiple Forward Stepwise Linear Regression Analysis (MFSLRA) with change in anxiety (F21), change in depressive affect (G21), change in suicidal thoughts
(O11) and the development of distress or clinical depression as dependent variables
Change in anxiety (F21)
R2 = 0.161; F (25,
12,620) = 97.286 p < < 0.0001;
SE of est: 0.809
b
t
p
b
SE
t
p
Development of distress or
clinical depression R2 = 0.191;
F(31,12,611) = 93.466
p < < 0.0001; SE of est: 0.640
b
SE
t
p
– 0.87 0.06 – 14.49
< 0.001 – 0.75 0.06 – 11.95
< 0.001 0.59
0.06
0.00
< 0.001
0.001 0.00
– 0.04 0.01 – 3.02
< 0.001 0.00 0.00 – 4.00
0.02 3.88
0.00 3.23
– 0.02 0.01 – 2.23
0.00 3.67
0.026 – 0.02 0.01 – 2.42
0.04 14.31
0.016
0.10
0.01 14.02
< 0.001 0.11
0.01 15.11
< 0.001 – 0.02 0.01 – 3.15
0.10
0.01 13.90
< 0.001 0.08
0.01 10.55
< 0.001 – 0.09 0.01 – 15.30
– 0.04 0.02 – 2.60
– 0.03
0.12
0.11
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
– 4.53
12.27
12.78
2.63
0.009
– 0.04 0.01 – 2.98
< 0.001 – 0.04
< 0.001 0.15
< 0.001 0.10
0.009 0.02
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
– 5.21
15.33
11.46
2.22
– 0.14 0.03 – 5.37
– 0.10 0.02 – 4.14
< 0.001 – 0.12 0.03 – 4.39
< 0.001 – 0.13 0.02 – 5.45
– 0.20 0.04 – 4.50
< 0.001
– 0.05 0.02 – 2.66
– 0.10 0.01 – 12.09
– 0.08 0.01 – 11.22
< 0.001 – 0.05 0.01 – 6.41
< 0.001 – 0.04 0.01 – 6.35
0.02
< 0.001 0.02
0.01 3.89
0.01 3.21
Change in suicidal
thoughts (O11) R2 = 0.051;
F (31,12,614) = 22.282
p < < 0.0001; SE of est: 0.770
b
SE
t
p
< 0.001 0.44
0.06 7.24
< 0.001
0.003 0.06
< 0.001 0.00
– 0.02
0.02
0.02
0.00
0.01
0.01
3.98
– 3.79
– 2.99
2.02
< 0.001
< 0.001
0.003
0.044
0.002 – 0.02 0.01 – 2.58
0.010
< 0.001 – 0.02 0.01 – 3.29
0.001
0.003 0.04
0.01 2.57
< 0.001 0.04
< 0.001 – 0.02
< 0.001 – 0.10
0.026 0.03
0.01 7.37
0.01 -3.24
0.01 – 14.79
0.01 4.99
< 0.001 0.06
0.001 – 0.06
< 0.001 – 0.05
< 0.001 – 0.05
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
< 0.001 0.20
< 0.001 0.36
0.37
0.44
0.15
0.008 0.17
0.14
0.02 9.37
0.02 18.61
0.09 4.26
0.07 6.36
0.03 4.46
0.02 9.63
0.02 5.65
< 0.001 0.05
< 0.001 0.07
< 0.001
< 0.001 – 0.19
< 0.001
< 0.001 0.05
< 0.001 0.11
0.03 2.03
0.02 2.95
0.042
0.003
0.08 – 2.28
0.023
< 0.001 0.06
< 0.001 0.05
0.01
0.01
< 0.001 0.02 0.01 2.08
< 0.001 – 0.01 0.01 – 2.24
0.001
8.69
9.92
8.30
– 6.67
– 5.81
– 6.22
0.010
0.02 2.48
0.03 3.87
< 0.001
< 0.001
< 0.001
< 0.001
0.013
< 0.001
0.037
0.025
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Intercept
Demographics
Sex (A1)- ‘non-binary gender’ was not included
Age (A2)
Number of persons in household (A5)
Education level (A7)
Work and finance
Continue to work during lockdown (A11)
Change in economic situation (E7)
Health
Condition of general health (B1)
Presence of a chronic medical condition (B2)
Family/social
Being a carer of a person belonging to a vulnerable group
(B4)
Conflicts within family (E3)
Change in quality of relationships within family (E4)
Keeping a basic routine during lockdown (E5)
Changes in religiousness/spirituality (P1)
Mental health history
History of anxiety (B5)
History of depression (B5)
History of psychosis (B5)
History of bipolar disorder (B5)
History of other mental disorder (B5)
History of self-harm (O12)
History of suicidal attempt (O13)
The effect of the pandemic
Fears of getting COVID-19 (C1)
Fears that a member of the family will get COVID-19 and die
(C3)
Time spent outside of house during lockdown (D1)
SE
Change in depressive affect
(G21) R2 = 0.116; F (25,
12,620) = 66.742 p < < 0.0001;
SE of est: 0.827
Change in anxiety (F21)
R2 = 0.161; F (25,
12,620) = 97.286 p < < 0.0001;
SE of est: 0.809
Currently locked up in the house (D2)
Satisfaction by availability of information (D4)
Beliefs in conspiracy theories
The vaccine was ready before the virus broke out and they
conceal it (J1)
COVID-19 was created in a laboratory as a biochemical
weapon (J2)
COVID-19 is the result of 5G technology antenna (J3)
COVID-19 appeared accidentally from human contact with
animals (J4)
COVID-19 has much lower mortality rate but there is terrorinducing propaganda (J5)
COVID-19 is a creation of the world’s powerful leaders to
create a global economic crisis (J6)
COVID-19 is a sign of divine power to destroy our planet (J7)
Occupation (A10)
Doctor
Nurse
Other Hospital staff
Other healthcare professional
Administrative staff
The predictors are shown in the left column
Change in depressive affect
(G21) R2 = 0.116; F (25,
12,620) = 66.742 p < < 0.0001;
SE of est: 0.827
b
SE
0.06
0.01 8.09
– 0.03 0.01 – 4.03
< 0.001 0.06 0.01 7.88
< 0.001
< 0.001
0.04
0.01 5.15
< 0.001 0.03
< 0.001 0.03
t
p
b
SE
Development of distress or
clinical depression R2 = 0.191;
F(31,12,611) = 93.466
p < < 0.0001; SE of est: 0.640
t
0.01 4.41
– 0.03 0.01 – 3.19
0.01
0.04
0.01 4.43
< 0.001
0.07
0.02 2.89
0.004
0.01 2.03
p
b
SE
t
p
Change in suicidal
thoughts (O11) R2 = 0.051;
F (31,12,614) = 22.282
p < < 0.0001; SE of est: 0.770
b
SE
t
p
0.02 0.01 3.05
– 0.06 0.01 – 8.12
0.002
< 0.001
4.38
< 0.001 – 0.02 0.01 – 2.97
0.003
– 0.03 0.01 – 4.09
< 0.001 – 0.02 0.01 – 2.91
0.004
0.001 0.05
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
6.71
2.42
< 0.001
0.016 – 0.02 0.01 – 3.75
< 0.001
0.02
0.01
2.43
0.015 – 0.02 0.01 – 2.15
0.031
0.04
0.01
6.12
0.042
– 0.04 0.01 – 3.08
< 0.001 0.02
0.01 2.99
0.003
0.002
– 0.05 0.02 – 2.06
0.06 0.03 2.13
0.040
0.033
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Table 4 (continued)
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Fig. 2 The model which was
previously developed in the general population and was proven
valid also in the population of
health professionals. It includes
multiple vulnerabilities representing the mechanism through
which the COVID-19 outbreak
in combination a great number
of factors could lead to clinical
depression through stress, and
eventually to suicidality. A
number of variables act as risk
factors (red) or as protective
factors (green), while some of
them change direction of action
depending on the phase (green/
red). Three core clusters emerge
(delineated with the doted lines)
(24.64%) while persons without any such history had the
lowest rate or current clinical depression (9.62%). The highest rate was for the history of Bipolar disorder (40.66%;
RR = 4.23). In those with a chronic somatic condition, the
rate of clinical depression was 15.35% vs. 12.56% in those
without (RR = 1.22). Believing in conspiracy theories was
significant with at least one-third of cases accepting at least
to a moderate degree a non-bizarre conspiracy.
The model developed suggested that a significant number of variables acted either as risk or as protective factors,
explaining 19.1% of the development of distress or clinical
depression, but their individual contribution was very small.
Conspiracy theories manifested a complex behavior with
some of them exerting a protective effect at certain phases.
Current clinical depression acted as a risk factor and past
history acted as a protective for the development of such
beliefs.
The overall levels of clinical depression were lower than
the rates reported in the literature, probably because of the
stringent criteria of the algorithm in the current study. The
large heterogeneity among countries probably reflects different phases of the pandemic in each country during the
data collection. Rates of depression and mental health deterioration, in general, are probably higher in those that actually suffered from COVID-19 [29]. Other studies reported
that half or more of health care professionals might suffer
from depression. [7, 24, 32, 48, 76, 81, 82, 103, 117],Mira
et al. 2020; [111, 112, 118]. Our results are identical to two
reports [26, 52]. Meta-analyses suggested that depression
rates range from 27% to 36% [45, 102, 109, 116] which is
two to three times higher in comparison to our findings. In
comparison, it has been reported that more than two-thirds
of the general population experienced at least severe distress
13
[18, 31, 50, 62, 80, 83, 110], and high levels of suicidality
[19]. Furthermore, our findings are in accord with a recently
published meta-analysis that reported much lower depression rates in the general population [21].
An important observation is that while the rate of clinical depression was much higher in persons with a history
of a mental disorder the proportion of depressed persons
without such a history is much higher than expected, taking
into consideration that the annual incidence of depression
is 0.3% [66]. This might mean that the pandemic posed a
RR = 30 on the population of health professionals to develop
clinical depression.
The multivariable analysis of the data allowed the current paper to confirm a staged model previously proposed
concerning the effect of the pandemic on mental health
(Fig. 2). This model had been developed concerning the
general population and it seems that in principle it is valid
for health professionals, although with some differences,
especially concerning the attenuating effect of conspiracy
theories and religiousness/spirituality.
According to it, with the onset of the pandemic, its psychological impact and the development of severe anxiety
and distress were determined by several sociodemographic
and interpersonal variables including age, fears specific to
the pandemic, the quality of relationships within the family,
keeping a basic daily routine, change in the economic situation, history of any mental disorder and being afraid that
him/herself or a family member will get COVID-19 and die.
Similar findings concerning the effects of these factors have
been reported in the literature [7, 17, 32, 35, 36, 46, 56, 57,
65, 67, 70, 80, 95, 98, 107, 111–113], Garre-Olmo et al.
2021; [89], but until now their detailed contribution had
not been identified and no comprehensive model had been
Current clinical depression
History of any
mental dis
Reassuring conspiracy theories
J1
Means of response scores by
clinical depression and history
No
No
Yes
Yes
All Grps
Yes
No
Yes
No
0.80
J5
Threatening conspiracy theories
J7
J2
J3
No believing in conspiracy theories
J6
J4
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
0.61
0.81
0.94
1.06
1.11
1.02
1.10
1.23
1.21
1.31
1.20
1.32
1.28
1.41
1.26
1.29
1.25
1.28
1.25
0.57
0.41
0.57
0.58
0.95
1.01
0.89
0.99
1.05
1.28
1.24
0.97
1.28
1.31
1.43
1.24
1.15
1.24
1.29
1.28
0.55
0.39
0.56
0.63
0.89
0.96
0.85
0.95
1.08
1.16
1.17
0.92
1.20
1.22
1.44
1.25
1.19
1.24
1.31
1.30
1.76
2.01
1.69
1.87
1.73
1.21
1.21
1.19
1.23
1.21
Wilks
F
Effect df
Error df
p
0.986
0.988
0.997
26.54
23.06
5.51
7
7
7
12,780
12,780
12,780
< 0.001
< 0.001
< 0.001
ANOVA results
Clinical depression
History of any mental disorder
Clinical depression* history of
any mental disorder
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Table 5 Means of responses (from –2 to + 2) to all conspiracy theories by current clinical depression and history of any mental disorder and ANOVA results
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
developed. On the other hand, several factors not assessed by
the current study, including the level of training, whether the
person worked in the frontline against COVID or in an ICU,
etc. [8, 54, 67, 111, 112], Mira et al. 2020; [7, 20, 24, 48, 51,
52, 71, 82, 95, 101, 103, 107] were reported as contributing
in the development of clinical depression. The current paper
suggests that from all health occupations, nurses might be at
a higher risk to develop severe stress and clinical depression,
and this is in accord with the literature [33, 48, 51, 58, 118].
Previous reports on the role of temperament are in accord
with this [74]
At the pandemic onset, we might not have imagined the
important role and the impact of conspiracy theories, which
are largely social media driven. They are currently widely
accepted as being important since the literature strongly
supports their relationship with anxiety and depression [22,
28]. According to the results of the current study, approximately one-third of responders accepted at least to a moderate degree a non-bizarre conspiracy theory, and this was true
both for ‘threatening’ as well as for ‘reassuring’ theories.
The acceptance of inflated death rates was 44.24% while
that of the 5G antenna theory was 20.81%. Doctors had the
lowest rates, but impressively, 37.6% of doctors and 50.86%
of nurses reported they were believing in the deliberate inflation of death rates by governments, and 14.75% and 27.22%
respectively were accepting the 5G theory. Interestingly,
believing in conspiracy theories pertaining to COVID-19
was lower in comparison to the general population and
played an attenuated role in the development of anxiety and
depression, however, these beliefs seem to be an important
factor even among doctors. The high rates of believing in
conspiracy theories are in accord with findings from various
countries [1, 64, 91, 108] and are a worrying manifestation. Conspiracy beliefs – especially those regarding science, medicine, and health-related topics – are widespread
[78], are widely distributed in social media [1, 11] and they
challenge the capacity of the average person to distill and
assess the content [30, 34]. They exert a well-documented
adverse effect on health behaviors, especially vaccination
[2, 3, 14–16, 43, 49, 59, 63, 72, 88, 91, 93, 99, 105]. There
seems to be some relationship between believing in bizarre
conspiracy theories and psychotic tendencies or a history of
psychotic disorders [60].
As was found in the general population, current clinical depression and past history of mental disorders are
both critical factors related to believing in conspiracy
theories. Our results could mean that the critical factor
which increases belief is the presence of current clinical
depression, while the past history acts at a second level. As
correlation does not imply causation, conspiracy theories
could be either the cause of clinical depression, a copying mechanism against clinical depression, or a marker of
maladaptive psychological patterns of cognitive appraisal.
13
After taking into consideration the complete model, and
especially the relationship to past mental health history,
the authors propose that the beliefs in conspiracy theories
are a copying mechanism against stress. The finding of
the relationship between current clinical depression and
believing in conspiracies is in accord with the literature
[28, 44, 106], One explanation could be found in the theory concerning ‘Depressive Realism’ [5, 6], Alloy et al.
1981; [12, 68, 77] which suggests that depressive persons
are more able than others to realistically interpret the
world, however, this higher ability leads to pessimism.
At the most extreme end, when the emergence of suicidal thinking is possible, the family environment and family responsibilities and care act either as risk or protective factors, depending on their quality, while religiosity/
spirituality and all beliefs in conspiracy theories act as
protective factors, except for one which includes religious
content. These results are in accord with the reports in the
literature [9, 56, 57, 61, 65, 79, 113].
A difficult-to-answer question is how many of the cases
detected by questionnaires and sophisticated algorithms
correspond to real major clinical depression. The underlying neurobiology is opaque and maybe much diagnosed
clinical depression might simply be an extreme form of
a normal adjustment reaction [53]. However, there is no
better way to psychometrically achieve higher validity and
the algorithm we utilized is the best available method. The
impressive increase in new cases of clinical depression
(9.62% of persons without any history of mental disorders
developed depression) which was found in our sample is
in accord with the literature [87]. However, a large part
of clinical depressions emerged from a previous mental
health history. Of the 13.15% with current clinical depression, 7.35% were new cases while 5.80% had previous history. This suggests that almost beyond doubt true clinical
depression increased by 30% (in the extreme scenario that
none of cases without previous history was a case of true
clinical depression. This extremely positive scenario also
suggests that maybe relapses expected to occur in the next
several years occurred earlier.
Concerning those without a previous history of mental
disorder, it is expected that much of the adverse effects
on mental health will rapidly attenuate with the end of
the pandemic [27] but enduring effects will impact some
vulnerable populations. So far studies investigating the
long-term outcome and the long-term impact of the pandemic on mental health display equivocal findings [13,
114]. Especially sociability and the sense of belonging
could be important factors determining mental health and
health-related behaviors [15], and these factors seem to
correspond to specific vulnerabilities seen especially in
western cultures.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Conclusion
participated in interpreting the data and developing further stages and
the final version of the paper.
The current paper reports high rates of clinical depression,
distress, and suicidal thoughts among the population of
health workers during the pandemic, with a high prevalence
of beliefs in conspiracy theories. For the development of
clinical depression, general health status, previous mental health history, self-harm and suicidal attempts, family
responsibility, economic change, and age acted as risk factors while keeping a daily routine, religiousness/spirituality, and belief in conspiracy theories were acting mostly as
protective factors. These findings, although they should be
closely monitored longitudinally, support previous suggestions by other authors concerning the need for a proactive
intervention to protect the mental health of the general population but more specifically of vulnerable groups [38, 94]
Funding None.
Strengths and limitations
The strengths of the current paper include the large number
of persons who filled out the questionnaire and the large
bulk of information obtained, as well as the detailed way of
post-stratification of the study sample.
The major limitation was that the data were obtained
anonymously online through the self-selection of the
responders. Additionally, the assessment included only the
cross-sectional application of self-report scales, although the
advanced algorithm used for the diagnosis of clinical depression corrected the problem to a certain degree. However,
what is included under the umbrella of ‘clinical depression’
in the stressful times of the pandemic remains a matter of
debate. Also, the lack of baseline data concerning the mental
health of a similar study sample before the pandemic is also
a problem.
Finally, a limitation would be that data from different
countries were pooled together and with a rather large difference in numbers among countries. So the interpretation
of findings should bear in mind the possible bias induced by
different cultural backgrounds. However, one should have
also in mind that backgrounds are not so different as one
might think since the online survey of a specific professional
population poses requirements that lead to similarities rather
than differences among the populations from different countries. Each of these countries was also undergoing a different
phase of the pandemic at each time point and phases were
also different across individuals. This means that the results
should be interpreted.
Author contributions All authors contributed equally to the paper.
KNF and DS conceived and designed the study. The other authors
participated formulating the final protocol, designing and supervising the data collection and creating the final dataset. KNF and DS
did the data analysis and wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors
Data availability statement Raw data are available upon request to the
principal investigator.
Declarations
Conflict of interest None pertaining to the current paper.
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Authors and Affiliations
Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis1 · Grigorios N. Karakatsoulis1 · Seri Abraham2,3,4 · Kristina Adorjan5 ·
Helal Uddin Ahmed6 · Renato D. Alarcón7,8 · Kiyomi Arai9 · Sani Salihu Auwal10,11 · Julio Bobes15,16 ·
Teresa Bobes‑Bascaran17,18 · Julie Bourgin‑Duchesnay19 · Cristina Ana Bredicean20 · Laurynas Bukelskis21 ·
Akaki Burkadze22,23 · Indira Indiana Cabrera Abud24 · Ruby Castilla‑Puentes25 · Marcelo Cetkovich26,27 ·
Hector Colon‑Rivera28 · Ricardo Corral29,30 · Carla Cortez‑Vergara31 · Piirika Crepin32 · Domenico de Berardis33,34,35 ·
Sergio Zamora Delgado36 · David de Lucena37 · Avinash de Sousa38,39 · Ramona di Stefano40 · Seetal Dodd12,13,41 ·
Livia Priyanka Elek42 · Anna Elissa43 · Berta Erdelyi‑Hamza42 · Gamze Erzin44 · Martin J. Etchevers45 · Peter Falkai5 ·
Adriana Farcas46 · Ilya Fedotov47 · Viktoriia Filatova48 · Nikolaos K. Fountoulakis49 · Iryna Frankova50 ·
Francesco Franza51,52 · Pedro Frias53 · Tatiana Galako54 · Cristian J. Garay45 · Leticia Garcia‑Álvarez18 ·
Paz García‑Portilla15,55 · Xenia Gonda42 · Tomasz M. Gondek56 · Daniela Morera González57 · Hilary Gould58 ·
Paolo Grandinetti33 · Arturo Grau36,59 · Violeta Groudeva60 · Michal Hagin61 · Takayuki Harada62 ·
Tasdik M. Hasan63,64 · Nurul Azreen Hashim65 · Jan Hilbig21 · Sahadat Hossain66 · Rossitza Iakimova67 ·
Mona Ibrahim68 · Felicia Iftene69 · Yulia Ignatenko70 · Matias Irarrazaval71 · Zaliha Ismail72 · Jamila Ismayilova73 ·
Asaf Jacobs74,75 · Miro Jakovljević76 · Nenad Jakšić14 · Afzal Javed77,78,79 · Helin Yilmaz Kafali80 · Sagar Karia38 ·
Olga Kazakova81 · Doaa Khalifa68 · Olena Khaustova50 · Steve Koh58 · Svetlana Kopishinskaia82,83 ·
Korneliia Kosenko84 · Sotirios A. Koupidis85 · Illes Kovacs42 · Barbara Kulig42 · Alisha Lalljee39 · Justine Liewig19 ·
Abdul Majid86 · Evgeniia Malashonkova19 · Khamelia Malik43 · Najma Iqbal Malik87 · Gulay Mammadzada88 ·
Bilvesh Mandalia39 · Donatella Marazziti89,90,91 · Darko Marčinko14,76 · Stephanie Martinez58 · Eimantas Matiekus21 ·
Gabriela Mejia58 · Roha Saeed Memon92 · Xarah Elenne Meza Martínez93 · Dalia Mickevičiūtė94 · Roumen Milev69 ·
Muftau Mohammed95 · Alejandro Molina‑López96 · Petr Morozov97 · Nuru Suleiman Muhammad98 · Filip Mustač14 ·
Mika S. Naor99 · Amira Nassieb68 · Alvydas Navickas21 · Tarek Okasha68 · Milena Pandova67 · Anca‑Livia Panfil100 ·
Liliya Panteleeva101 · Ion Papava20 · Mikaella E. Patsali102,103 · Alexey Pavlichenko71 · Bojana Pejuskovic104,105 ·
Mariana Pinto da Costa106 · Mikhail Popkov107 · Dina Popovic108 · Nor Jannah Nasution Raduan65 ·
Francisca Vargas Ramírez36,59 · Elmars Rancans109,110 · Salmi Razali65 · Federico Rebok111,112 · Anna Rewekant113 ·
Elena Ninoska Reyes Flores114 · María Teresa Rivera‑Encinas115 · Pilar A. Saiz15 · Manuel Sánchez de Carmona116 ·
David Saucedo Martínez117 · Jo Anne Saw65 · Görkem Saygili118 · Patricia Schneidereit119 · Bhumika Shah120 ·
Tomohiro Shirasaka121 · Ketevan Silagadze22 · Satti Sitanggang122 · Oleg Skugarevsky123 · Anna Spikina124 ·
Sridevi Sira Mahalingappa125 · Maria Stoyanova67 · Anna Szczegielniak126 · Simona Claudia Tamasan100 ·
Giuseppe Tavormina52,127,128 · Maurilio Giuseppe Maria Tavormina52 · Pavlos N. Theodorakis129 ·
Mauricio Tohen130 · Eva‑Maria Tsapakis131,132 · Dina Tukhvatullina133 · Irfan Ullah134 · Ratnaraj Vaidya135 ·
Johann M. Vega‑Dienstmaier136 · Jelena Vrublevska109,110,140 · Olivera Vukovic103,137 · Olga Vysotska138 ·
Natalia Widiasih43 · Anna Yashikhina82,139 · Panagiotis E. Prezerakos140 · Michael Berk12,13 · Sarah Levaj14 ·
Daria Smirnova82,141
* Grigorios N. Karakatsoulis
gregkarakatsoulis@gmail.com
Kristina Adorjan
Kristina.Adorjan@med.uni-muenchen.de
Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis
Kostasfountoulakis@gmail.com
Helal Uddin Ahmed
soton73@gmail.com
Seri Abraham
seri.abraham@nhs.net
Renato D. Alarcón
renato.alarcon@upch.pe; alarcon.renato@mayo.edu
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Kiyomi Arai
k_arai@shinshu-u.ac.jp
Peter Falkai
Peter.Falkai@med.uni-muenchen.de
Sani Salihu Auwal
auwal01@yahoo.com
Adriana Farcas
6amf@queensu.ca
Julio Bobes
bobes@uniovi.es
Ilya Fedotov
ilyafdtv11@gmail.com
Teresa Bobes-Bascaran
bobesmaria@uniovi.es
Viktoriia Filatova
filatovaviktoria@mail.ru
Julie Bourgin-Duchesnay
julie.bourgin@gmail.com
Nikolaos K. Fountoulakis
nikolasfountoulakis@gmail.com
Cristina Ana Bredicean
brediceancristina@gmail.com
Iryna Frankova
iryna.frankova@gmail.com
Laurynas Bukelskis
bukelskis@gmail.com
Francesco Franza
franza.francesco@virgilio.it
Akaki Burkadze
dr.burkadze@gmail.com
Pedro Frias
friaspn@gmail.com
Indira Indiana Cabrera Abud
indira_ica@hotmail.com
Tatiana Galako
tatiana-galako@yandex.ru
Ruby Castilla-Puentes
rcastil4@its.jnj.com
Cristian J. Garay
cristiangaray@psi.uba.ar
Marcelo Cetkovich
mcetkovich@ineco.org.ar
Leticia Garcia-Álvarez
lettti@gmail.com
Hector Colon-Rivera
hectorcolonriveramd@gmail.com
Paz García-Portilla
albert@uniovi.es
Ricardo Corral
rcorral33@gmail.com
Xenia Gonda
kendermagos@yahoo.com
Carla Cortez-Vergara
carla.cortez.v@upch.pe
Tomasz M. Gondek
tomaszmgondek@gmail.com
Piirika Crepin
piirika.crepin@gmail.com
Daniela Morera González
danielamorera@gmail.com
Domenico de Berardis
domenico.deberardis@aslteramo.it
Hilary Gould
hgould@health.ucsd.edu
Sergio Zamora Delgado
szamora@calvomackenna.cl
Paolo Grandinetti
grandinetti.paolo@gmail.com
David de Lucena
alienista@ufc.br; dvdlucena@gmail.com
Arturo Grau
doctorgrau@yahoo.com
Avinash de Sousa
avinashdes888@gmail.com
Violeta Groudeva
violetagroudeva@gmail.com
Ramona di Stefano
ramonadist@gmail.com
Michal Hagin
michal.hagin@gmail.com
Seetal Dodd
seetaldodd@gmail.com
Takayuki Harada
tkharada77@gmail.com
Livia Priyanka Elek
elek.livia.priyanka@gmail.com
Tasdik M. Hasan
tasdikhdip@yahoo.com
Anna Elissa
annaelissa.md@gmail.com
Nurul Azreen Hashim
azreen@uitm.edu.my
Berta Erdelyi-Hamza
hamzaberta@gmail.com
Jan Hilbig
hilbig.jan@gmail.com
Gamze Erzin
gamze.erzin@gmail.com
Sahadat Hossain
sahadat.hossain@juniv.edu
Martin J. Etchevers
martinjetchevers@gmail.com
Rossitza Iakimova
rosica.iakimova@abv.bg
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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Mona Ibrahim
monaawaad99@gmail.com
Najma Iqbal Malik
Najma.iqbal@uos.edu.pk; najmamalik@gmail.com
Felicia Iftene
iftenef@providencecare.ca
Gulay Mammadzada
gulay.mammadzada@gmail.com
Yulia Ignatenko
hvala_korolevna@rambler.ru
Bilvesh Mandalia
bilveshmandalia@gmail.com
Matias Irarrazaval
matias.irarrazaval@minsal.cl
Donatella Marazziti
dmarazzi@psico.med.unipi.it
Zaliha Ismail
zaliha78@uitm.edu.my
Darko Marčinko
predstojnik.psi@kbc-zagreb.hr
Jamila Ismayilova
ismayilova.d@gmail.com
Stephanie Martinez
stm032@health.ucsd.edu
Asaf Jacobs
asafjacobs@gmail.com
Eimantas Matiekus
eimantasmatiekus@yahoo.com
Miro Jakovljević
jakovljevic.miro@yahoo.com
Gabriela Mejia
ggmejia@health.ucsd.edu
Nenad Jakšić
nenad_jaksic@yahoo.com
Roha Saeed Memon
memon.roha@gmail.com
Afzal Javed
afzalj@gmail.com
Xarah Elenne Meza Martínez
xarahmeza22@gmail.com
Helin Yilmaz Kafali
helinyilmaz136@gmail.com
Dalia Mickevičiūtė
dalia.mickeviciute@gmail.com
Sagar Karia
kariabhai117@gmail.com
Roumen Milev
roumen.milev@queensu.ca
Olga Kazakova
olga.kazakova.md@gmail.com
Muftau Mohammed
miftahmuhammad101@gmail.com
Doaa Khalifa
doaakhalifa72@gmail.com
Alejandro Molina-López
doctor.alex.psiquiatra@gmail.com
Olena Khaustova
7974247@gmail.com
Petr Morozov
prof.morozov@gmail.com
Steve Koh
shkoh@ucsd.edu
Nuru Suleiman Muhammad
nurusulemuhammad@gmail.com
Svetlana Kopishinskaia
kopishinskaya@gmail.com
Filip Mustač
filip.mustac@gmail.com
Korneliia Kosenko
sun2003@ukr.net
Mika S. Naor
Mikanaor@mail.tau.ac.il
Sotirios A. Koupidis
sotirioskoupidis@yahoo.gr
Amira Nassieb
amiraelbatrawy@gmail.com
Illes Kovacs
kovilles@gmail.com
Alvydas Navickas
alvydas.navickas@mf.vu.lt
Barbara Kulig
kulig.barbara@hotmail.com
Tarek Okasha
tarek.okasha@gmail.com
Alisha Lalljee
alishalalljee@gmail.com
Milena Pandova
milena.pandova@gmail.com
Justine Liewig
j.liewig@gmail.com
Anca-Livia Panfil
anca.livia.panfil@gmail.com
Abdul Majid
maajid72@gmail.com
Liliya Panteleeva
p.lilya12@gmail.com
Evgeniia Malashonkova
e.malashonkova@gh-nord-essonne.fr
Ion Papava
papava.ion@umft.ro
Khamelia Malik
khameliapsi@gmail.com
Mikaella E. Patsali
mikaellapatsali@gmail.com
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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Alexey Pavlichenko
apavlichenko76@gmail.com
Maria Stoyanova
mb_milenkova@yahoo.com
Bojana Pejuskovic
bpejuskovic@hotmail.com
Anna Szczegielniak
anna.szczegielniak@gmail.com
Mariana Pinto da Costa
mariana.pintodacosta@gmail.com
Simona Claudia Tamasan
simona_tamasan@yahoo.com
Mikhail Popkov
mihailpopkovanat@gmail.com
Giuseppe Tavormina
dr.tavormina.g@libero.it
Dina Popovic
popovic.dina@gmail.com
Maurilio Giuseppe Maria Tavormina
mtavormina@virgilio.it
Nor Jannah Nasution Raduan
norjannah@uitm.edu.my
Pavlos N. Theodorakis
theodorakisp@who.int
Francisca Vargas Ramírez
fvargas.ra@gmail.com
Mauricio Tohen
MTohen@salud.unm.edu
Elmars Rancans
erancans@latnet.lv
Eva-Maria Tsapakis
emtsapakis@doctors.org.uk
Salmi Razali
drsalmi@uitm.edu.my
Dina Tukhvatullina
d.tukhvatullina@smd20.qmul.ac.uk
Federico Rebok
federicorebok@gmail.com
Irfan Ullah
Irfanullahecp2@gmail.com
Anna Rewekant
reweana@gmail.com
Ratnaraj Vaidya
r.vaidya@newcastle.ac.uk
Elena Ninoska Reyes Flores
elena.reyes@unah.edu.hn
Johann M. Vega-Dienstmaier
johann.vega.d@upch.pe; johannvega@yahoo.com
María Teresa Rivera-Encinas
mriverae@usmp.pe
Jelena Vrublevska
vrublevskaja@inbox.lv
Pilar A. Saiz
frank@uniovi.es
Olivera Vukovic
olivukovic@gmail.com
Manuel Sánchez de Carmona
msanchezdecarmona@mac.com
Olga Vysotska
uafmed@gmail.com
David Saucedo Martínez
davidsaucedomartinez1@gmail.com
Natalia Widiasih
widiasih_1973@yahoo.com
Jo Anne Saw
annejosaw@uitm.edu.my
Anna Yashikhina
akvaraul@mail.ru
Görkem Saygili
gsaygili@gmail.com
Panagiotis E. Prezerakos
prezerpot@gmail.com
Patricia Schneidereit
p.schneidereit@klinikum-weissenhof.de
Michael Berk
michael.berk@deakin.edu.au
Bhumika Shah
bhumikarshah47@gmail.com
Sarah Levaj
sarahbjedov@gmail.com
Tomohiro Shirasaka
shirasaka.t@gmail.com
Daria Smirnova
daria.smirnova.md.phd@gmail.com
Ketevan Silagadze
ketevani26@gmail.com
1
3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki Greece, Thessaloniki, Greece
Satti Sitanggang
sattiradja_96@yahoo.co.id
2
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Ashton-under-Lyne,
UK
Oleg Skugarevsky
skugarevsky@gmail.com
3
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
4
Core Psychiatry Training, Health Education England North
West, Manchester, UK
5
Department of Psychiatry, Ludiwig-Maximilians-University,
Munich, Germany
Anna Spikina
a-spikina@yandex.ru
Sridevi Sira Mahalingappa
sridevi.siramahalingappa@nhs.net
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
6
7
8
Child Adolescent and Family Psychiatry, National Institute
of Mental Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Section of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Universidad
Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Facultad de Medicina Alberto
Hurtado, Lima, Peru
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic
School of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA
30
University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
31
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Clínica
AngloAmericana, Lima, Perú
32
Sanitaire and Social Union for Accompaniment
and Prevention, Center of Ambulatory Psychiatry
of Narbonne and Lezigan, Narbonne, France
33
Department of Mental Health, Psychiatric Service
of Diagnosis and Treatment, Hospital “G. Mazzini”, ASL
Teramo, Teramo, Italy
9
School of Medicine and Health Science, Institute of Health
Science Shinshu University, Matsumoto, Japan
10
Department of Psychiatry, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
34
School of Nursing, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
11
Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria
35
12
IMPACT–the Institute for Mental and Physical Health
and Clinical Translation, Deakin University, School
of Medicine, Barwon Health, Geelong, Australia
Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, School
of Psychiatry, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy
36
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Hospital Luis
Calvo Mackenna, Santiago, Chile
37
Departamento de Fisiología E Farmacología, Universidade
Federal Do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
38
Department of Psychiatry, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal
Medical College, Mumbai, India
39
Desousa Foundation, Mumbai, India
40
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical
Sciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of L’Aquila,
L’Aquila, Italy
41
University Hospital Geelong, Barwon Health, Geelong, VIC,
Australia
42
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis
University, Budapest, Hungary
43
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas
Indonesia, Cipto Mangunkusumo National Referral Hospital,
Jakarta, Indonesia
44
Psychiatry Department, Ankara Dışkapı Training
and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
45
Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires (UBA),
Buenos Aires, Argentina
46
Centre of Neuroscience, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON,
Canada
47
Department of Psychiatry and Narcology, Ryazan State
Medical University N.a. Academician I.P. Pavlov, Ryazan,
Russia
13
14
Orygen The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental
Health, Centre for Youth Mental Health, Florey Institute
for Neuroscience and Mental Health and the Department
of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne,
Australia
Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine,
University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
15
Psychiatry Area, Department of Medicine, University
of Oviedo, ISPA, INEUROPA. CIBERSAM, Oviedo, Spain
16
Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario Central de
Asturias, ISPA, INEUROPA. CIBERSAM, Oviedo, Spain
17
Mental Health Center of La Corredoria, ISPA,
INEUROPA. CIBERSAM, Oviedo, Spain
18
Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, ISPA,
INEUROPA. CIBERSAM, Oviedo, Spain
19
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department
of Psychiatry, Groupe Hospitalier Nord Essonne, Orsay,
France
20
Department of Neuroscience, Discipline of Psychiatry,
“Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy,
Timisoara, Romania
21
Clinic of Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Medical
Faculty, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
22
Mental Hub, Tbilisi, Georgia
23
NGO Healthcare Research and Quality Agency, Tbilisi,
Georgia
48
24
State Budgetary Institution of the Rostov Region
“Psychoneurological Dispensary”, Rostov-On-Don, Russia
Hospital San Juan de Dios Hospital, Guadalajara, Mexico
49
25
Janssen Research and Development, Johnson and Johnson,
American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry and WARMI
Women Mental Health, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Sofia,
Sofia Center, Bulgaria
50
Institute of Translational and Cognitive Neuroscience
(INCyT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Medical Psychology, Psychosomatic Medicine
and Psychotherapy Department, Bogomolets National
Medical University, Kiev, Ukraine
51
Villa Dei Pini Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, Avellino,
Italy
National Scientific and Technical Research Council
(CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
52
Psychiatric Studies Centre, Provaglio d’Iseo, Italy
APM Board Certified in General Psychiatry and Neurology,
Addiction Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine, UPMC,
DDAP, Philadelphia, USA
53
Hospital Magalhães Lemos, Porto, Portugal
54
Department of Psychiatry, Medical Psychology and Drug
Abuse, Kyrgyz State Medical Academy, Bishkek,
Kyrgyz Republic
26
27
28
29
Department of Teaching and Research, Hospital Borda,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
55
Mental Health Center of La Ería, ISPA,
INEUROPA. CIBERSAM, Oviedo, Spain
56
Specialty Training Section, Polish Psychiatric Association,
Wroclaw, Poland
82
International Centre for Education and Research
in Neuropsychiatry (ICERN), Samara State Medical
University, Samara, Russia
83
Kirov State Medical University, Kirov, Russia
Drug Abuse and Psychology Department, Odessa National
Medical University, Odessa, Ukraine
57
Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón De La Fuente
Muñiz, Mexico City, Mexico
84
58
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San
Diego, San Diego, USA
85
59
Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
Occupational and Environmental Health Sector, Public
Health Policy Department, School of Public Health,
University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
60
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, University Hospital Saint
Ekaterina, Sofia, Bulgaria
86
Department of Psychiatry, SKIMS Medical College,
Srinagar, India
61
Forensic Psychiatry Unit, Abarbanel Mental Health Center,
Bat Yam, Israel
87
Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha,
Sargodha, Pakistan
62
Faculty of Human Sciences, Education Bureau
of the Laboratory Schools, University of Tsukuba, Tokyo,
Japan
88
Department of Psychiatry, Azerbaijan Medical University,
Baku, Azerbaijan
89
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section
of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
90
Unicamillus, Saint Camillus International University
of Health Sciences, Rome, Italy
91
Brain Research Foundation Onus, Lucca, Italy
92
Department of Public Health and Informatics, Jahangirnagar
University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences,
Karachi, Pakistan
93
Second Psychiatric Clinic, University Hospital for Active
Treatment in Neurology and Psychiatry “Saint Naum”, Sofia,
Bulgaria
Postgraduate Program in Psychiatry, National Autonomous
University of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
94
Private Outpatient Clinics “JSC InMedica Klinika”, Vilnius,
Lithuania
63
Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, University
of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
64
Public Health Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
65
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti
Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia
66
67
68
Faculty of Medicine, Okasha Institute of Psychiatry, Ain
Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
95
Department of Clinical Services, Federal Neuropsychiatric
Hospital, Kaduna, Nigeria
69
Department of Psychiatry, Queens University, Kingston, ON,
Canada
96
General Office for the Psychiatric Services of the Ministry
of Health, Mexico City, Mexico
70
Mental Health Clinic No 1 N.a. N.A. Alexeev of Moscow
Healthcare Department, Education Center, Moscow, Russia
97
71
Ministry of Health, Millenium Institute for Research
in Depression and Personality, Santiago, Chile
Department of Postgraduate Education, Russian National
Research Medical University N.a. N.I. Pirogov, Moscow,
Russia
98
Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh, Selangor,
Malaysia
Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello
University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria
99
Sackler School of Medicine New York State American
Program, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
72
73
National Mental Health Center of the Ministry of Health
of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan
100
Compartment of Liaison Psychiatry, “Pius Brinzeu” County
Emergency Clinical Hospital, Timisoara, Romania
74
Department of Psychiatry, Westchester Medical Center
Health System, Valhalla, NY, USA
101
75
New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA
Department of Medical Psychology, Psychiatry
and Psychotherapy, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University,
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
76
School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
102
77
School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras,
Greece
Institute of Applied Health Research, University
of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
103
78
Department of Internal Medicine, Nicosia General Hospital,
Nicosia, Cyprus
Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry,
UK
104
79
Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade,
Serbia
Psychiatric Research Centre, Fountain House, Lahore,
Pakistan
105
80
Clinical Department for Crisis and Affective Disorders,
Institute of Mental Health, Belgrade, Serbia
Child Psychiatry Department, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara,
Turkey
106
81
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s
College London, London, UK
Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
13
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
107
Department of the Introduction to Internal Medicine
and Family Medicine, International Higher School
of Medicine, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
108
Abarbanel Mental Health Center, Bat-Yam, Israel
109
Department of Psychiatry and Narcology, Riga Stradins
University, Riga, Latvia
110
Riga Centre of Psychiatry and Narcology, Riga, Latvia
111
112
126
Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Department
of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medical
Sciences in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia,
Katowice, Poland
127
European Depression Association and Italian Association
on Depression, Brussels, Belgium
128
Servicio de Emergencia, Acute Inpatient Unit, Hospital
Moyano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bedforshire Center for Mental Health Research,
in association with the University of Cambridge, Cambridge,
UK
129
Argentine Institute of Clinical Psychiatry (IAPC),
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Health Policy, WHO Regional Office for Europe,
Copenhagen, Denmark
130
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School
of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM,
USA
113
General Psychiatry Unit I, Greater Poland Neuropsychiatric
Center, Kościan, Poland
114
Department of Psychiatry, National Autonomous University
of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
131
Agios Charalambos Mental Health Clinic, Heraklion, Crete,
Greece
115
Centro de Investigación en Salud Pública, Facultad de
Medicina, Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Instituto
Nacional de Salud Mental “Honorio Delgado – Hideyo
Noguchi”, Lima, Perú
132
1st Department of Academic Psychiatry, School of Medicine,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
133
Centre for Global Public Health, Institute of Population
Health Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London,
UK
134
Kabir Medical College, Gandhara University, Peshawar,
Pakistan
135
Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
136
Facultad de Medicina Alberto Hurtado, Universidad Peruana
Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú
137
Klinik Für Allgemeine Psychiatrie Und Psychotherapie Ost,
Psychiatrische Institutsambulanz, Klinikum Am Weissenhof,
Weissenhof, Germany
Institute of Public Health, Riga Stradins University, Riga,
Latvia
138
Department for Research and Education, Institute of Mental
Health, Belgrade, Serbia
120
DY Patil Medical College, Navi Mumbai, India
139
121
Department of Psychiatry, Teine Keijinkai Medical Center,
Sapporo, Japan
Educational and Research Center–Ukrainian Family
Medicine Training Center, Bogomolets National Medical
University, Kiev, Ukraine
122
Psychiatric Unit, Pambalah Batung General Hospital, South
Kalimantan, Amuntai, Indonesia
140
123
Department of Psychiatry, Narcology, Psychotherapy
and Clinical Psychology, Samara State Medical University,
Samara, Russia
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology,
Belarusian State Medical University, Minsk, Belarus
141
124
Department of Nursing, University of Peloponnese,
Laboratory of Integrated Health Care, Tripoli, Greece
Saint Petersburg Psychoneurological Dispensary No2,
Saint Petersburg, Russia
125
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, The Liasion
Team, Royal Derby Hospital, Derby, Derbyshire, UK
116
117
118
119
Faculty of Health Sciences, Anahuac University,
Mexico City, Mexico
Department of Psychiatry, Escuela Nacional de Medicina,
TEC de Monterrey. Servicio de Geriatría. Hospital
Universitario “José Eleuterio González” UANL, Monterrey,
Nuevo León, México
Assistant Professor at Cognitive Science and Artificial
Intelligence Department, Tilburg University, Tilburg,
The Netherlands
13