FEELINGS of loneliness and hopelessness have increased among Scottish adults in the past year, new research has found.
There was also a rise in the number of people who thought about suicide, according to the Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health in the Pandemic study.
Researchers found that feelings of loneliness have become much more common over the past year, increasing from 11% of those surveyed in March last year to 29% in February this year.
The number of people who said they had felt hopeless because of the pandemic over the previous two weeks also rose from 15% last year to 20% in February this year.
However anxiety about the pandemic has fallen, from 64% in March last year to 44% last month.
Lee Knifton, director of Mental Health Foundation Scotland (MHF), said: “Our study has tracked the pandemic’s impacts on Scotland’s mental health for a year and what we see is a complex picture. On some measures, Scottish adults are feeling better, with fewer of us feeling anxious about the pandemic, but more of us now feel lonely and hopeless, which is a serious concern given that these are risk factors for mental health problems.”
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