Thread by @GidMK

Ugh this is an irresponsible headline and a pretty dubious study. Compared NHANES to an internet survey conducted in April that used a 13-point rating of depression *symptoms*, not depression diagnoses 🙄

https://twitter.com/elemental/status/1323533016476618752

One big issue with this is that transient depression symptoms do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of depression in most cases, and a single survey done at the start of the pandemic may not be sufficient to describe the true situation

I think all you could reasonably say from this is that people in this particular survey were experiencing a high burden of worry in April in the U.S., but what this means for mental health issues long term is quite hard to discern

I should clarify, it was probably unfair to cash the study dubious - while I'm skeptical that the specific numbers in the study are comparable, the main point was just that there were probably a few more depression symptoms than we'd usually expect to see in 2020 which is fair