Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Joseph Firth, John Torous
Journal: The Lancet Psychiatry (2020)

The need for real-time mental health monitoring is emerging as a key research priority in psychiatric research. The Lancet Psychiatry Position Paper by Emily Holmes and colleagues1Holmes EA O'Connor RC Perry VH et al.Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science.Lancet Psychiatry. 2020; (published online April 15, 2020.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30168-1Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3637) Google Scholar identifies several "multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic", proposing that real-time mental health monitoring (ie, through the use of smartphones and related connected technologies) is a central priority for understanding and managing the psychological impacts of the current crisis and future pandemics. However, it is also important to acknowledge how further developments in real-time mental health monitoring are of great need and great potential benefit, even outside pandemic-related contexts. Currently, psychiatric research is approaching a point of saturation of observational and interventional studies that identify a wide range of putative behavioural and social factors for mental health across the life course.2Köhler CA Evangelou E Stubbs B et al.Mapping risk factors for depression across the lifespan: an umbrella review of evidence from meta-analyses and Mendelian randomization studies.J Psychiatr Res. 2018; 103: 189-207Crossref PubMed Scopus (147) Google Scholar, 3Fullana MA Tortella-Feliu M de la Cruz LF et al.Risk and protective factors for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Psychol Med. 2019; (published online June 7.)DOI:10.1017/S0033291719001247Crossref Scopus (33) Google Scholar Although useful, this body of research is primarily designed to establish the long-term mental health outcomes of a specific exposure during the course of weeks, months, or years.2Köhler CA Evangelou E Stubbs B et al.Mapping risk factors for depression across the lifespan: an umbrella review of evidence from meta-analyses and Mendelian randomization studies.J Psychiatr Res. 2018; 103: 189-207Crossref PubMed Scopus (147) Google Scholar, 3Fullana MA Tortella-Feliu M de la Cruz LF et al.Risk and protective factors for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Psychol Med. 2019; (published online June 7.)DOI:10.1017/S0033291719001247Crossref Scopus (33) Google Scholar Additionally, these paradigms of measurement, which are currently used as standard to investigate mental health determinants, mostly focus on average outcomes across a broad cohort, thus failing to capture the nuances in how specific behaviours or stressors have differential psychological effects between individuals. Now, for the first time in history, individuals across the globe are increasingly connected with mobile devices capable of capturing real-time data from a plethora of sources, both actively (through user input) and passively (through sensors and device use metrics).4Firth J Torous J Stubbs B et al.The "online brain": how the Internet may be changing our cognition.World Psychiatry. 2019; 18: 119-129Crossref PubMed Scopus (215) Google Scholar Although active collection of real-time mental health data will improve our understanding of the psychological impacts of the current crisis, efforts should now also focus on improving our capacity for collecting and using data gathered by such devices on environmental, behavioural, and social factors that are thought to influence psychological wellbeing. Such data can enable researchers to engage in fine-grain analysis of how lifestyle factors, environment, in-person interactions, and exposure to online news and social media relate to mental health "in the moment",5Bhugra D Tasman A Pathare S et al.The WPA–Lancet Psychiatry commission on the future of psychiatry.Lancet Psychiatry. 2017; 4: 775-818Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (233) Google Scholar thereby providing new insights into the causal nature of those relations. Furthermore, these novel methods of data collection could ultimately be used for creating an evidence base to identify individuals' personal risk factors for adverse psychological states and to develop personalised just-in-time interventions for enhancing the self-management of mental illness. A further benefit to these approaches is the scalability of such technologies to meet the needs of low-income and middle-income countries. Clearly, the priorities identified by Holmes and colleagues are well timed, not only for the current pandemic, but also to improve mental health science more broadly. To realise their benefits, it is important to keep in mind how new approaches implemented through necessity within the current crisis can also be used to further develop understanding beyond the context of pandemics, potentially presenting new, scalable, and real-time methods for interventions for mental health. JF is currently supported by a University of Manchester Presidential Fellowship (P123958) and a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T021780/1), and has received support from an NICM-Blackmores Institute Fellowship. JT is supported by an American Psychiatric Association and American Psychiatric Association Foundation Psychiatric Research Fellowship. Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicEmily Holmes and colleagues' Position Paper1 in The Lancet Psychiatry outlines some important mental health research priorities for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This pandemic presents an unusual, large-scale opportunity to examine the far-reaching impact of the language that we use to describe human distress because the impact of COVID-19 has been widely pathologised. The media has discussed a "pandemic of severe mental health disorders",2 and there is a widespread perceived need to offer psychological interventions. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health scienceThe 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. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicThe Position Paper outlining mental health research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic was timely and useful.1 I write to add that research is urgently needed to evaluate the mental health impact of different public health approaches to COVID-19. The world seems to have generally approached the COVID-19 pandemic from a humanitarian perspective; perhaps because the contagiousness of COVID-19 means that it has been widely perceived as personally salient. To focus on threat and try to immediately save as many people as possible from COVID-19-related deaths is an understandable and effective approach. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicWe laud the aims of Emily Holmes and colleagues1 to highlight the impending mental health consequences of COVID-19, especially the call to ensure there is a joined-up multidisciplinary response. The authors note the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups. For people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, there are already significant mental health inequalities. These inequalities warrant a specific research response above and beyond that expressed in this report. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicWe appreciate the proactive outlook of Emily Holmes and colleagues1 in setting priorities for mental health science in the COVID-19 pandemic in their Lancet Psychiatry Position Paper.1 A paper of this kind necessarily uses a broad brush, and we agree particularly with the need for harmonised data and interdisciplinarity. We further agree that the pandemic is likely to have pervasive and diverse effects on the mental health of young people globally, including those in education and those not in education. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicWe read with interest Emily A Holmes and colleagues' call for action regarding research around the current national COVID-19 pandemic.1 Their suggestion that UK research funding agencies collaborate with researchers, people with lived experience, and others to establish a high-level coordination group and ensure that priorities are actioned, is welcomed by us as Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrists. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicI read with great interest the recently published position paper by Holmes and colleagues,1 outlining most appropriately the multidisciplinary priorities for mental health research in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I concur that we are already seeing the fallout of COVID-19, reflected in more acute presentations with perceived greater risk. This distress is driven in many cases by the consequences of reduced service provision or the loss of economic livelihood. Undoubtedly, mental health is a priority and a coordinated, focused, and robust approach is needed. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary: research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicIn The Lancet Psychiatry, Emily A Holmes and colleagues1 set a formidable and very important challenge to "explore the psychological, social, and neuroscientific effects of [coronavirus disease] COVID-19 and spell out the immediate priorities and longer-term strategies for mental health science research". We absolutely must answer their call to action, but the authors1 have not addressed the next generation who are in utero during the outbreak in their Article. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicThe COVID-19 pandemic and measures to contain the spread of the virus have led to marked changes in our social worlds, within a very short timeframe. There is widespread worry, fear, and distress among populations worldwide. Not surprisingly, there is growing concern about the consequences of the pandemic on mental health. In their Position Paper, Emily Holmes and colleagues1 set out their priorities for research, to inform the development of effective strategies that could mitigate the effects of the pandemic on mental health. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemicIn their Position Paper1 in The Lancet Psychiatry, Emily Holmes and colleagues have laid out a comprehensive outline for mental health research, with a focus on a multidisciplinary approach to guide policy and practice using a bio-psychosocial approach, and have suggested research areas making use of existing research infrastructure and aligning ongoing research with COVID-19 priorities. Full-Text PDF Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic – Authors' replyWe are encouraged and stimulated by the responses to our Position Paper on COVID-19 mental health science. Some key messages are consistent: the mental health effects of COVID-19 are likely to be profound, long lasting, and will touch all sectors of society. Moreover, there was consensus that only by harnessing a truly multidisciplinary response will we be able to mitigate the mental health risks effectively. How best to respond will be a challenge that requires most of us to think and work differently, and for our scientific, research, and practice communities to come together to create novel solutions. Full-Text PDF