A team of researchers from the University of South Carolina found evidence that people who are vaccinated against coronavirus experience less stress afterwards and notice consequent improvements in their mental health. The team wrote a paper in which they described their -one-year- research effort, but also what they learned from it. The findings were published in PLOS ONE.
Scientists had taken part in a long-term University study that looked at the effects of the pandemic on mental health. The initial part of the work involved sending more than 8.000 questionnaires to people across the United States, containing questions aimed at assessing how the pandemic had affected people's mental health in general.
The data show that the majority of people surveyed experienced some degree of anxiety and depression as a result of the pandemic. Researchers continued to send questionnaires to the same people every two weeks as a way to measure changes in mental health as the pandemic progressed. In the last questionnaire, participants were asked about the effects on mental health after being vaccinated for COVID-19.
The researchers found that study participants experienced a 15% reduction in the chances of feeling severely depressed after vaccination and a 4% reduction in the chances of feeling mildly depressed. They also estimate that based on their data there is a possibility that one million people have experienced a reduction in mental discomfort after being vaccinated.
In addition, experts argue that the data suggest that vaccination for COVID-19 offers more than just protecting people from infection - as it significantly reduces the fear and anxiety that people feel about the possibility of being infected with the coronavirus.
They also suggest that there may be more, as the scientists did not ask participants about the reduction they may have observed in stress and anxiety after vaccinating their loved ones. Finally, they emphasize that in general the work is still in progress and that more questionnaires will be sent in order to determine how people feel about the prospect of infection with the virus mutations and how they may feel after receiving the booster, third dose.
Source: Ygeiamou.gr