BackgroundAnxiety and depression are common, debilitating and costly. These disorders are influenced by multiple risk factors, from genes to psychological vulnerabilities and environmental stressors, but research is hampered by a lack of sufficiently large comprehensive studies. We are recruiting 40,000 individuals with lifetime depression or anxiety and broad assessment of risks to facilitate future research.MethodsThe Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study (www.gladstudy.org.uk) recruits individuals with depression or anxiety into the NIHR Mental Health BioResource. Participants invited to join the study (via media campaigns) provide demographic, environmental and genetic data, and consent for medical record linkage and recontact.ResultsOnline recruitment was effective; 42,531 participants consented and 27,776 completed the questionnaire by end of July 2019. Participants’ questionnaire data identified very high rates of recurrent depression, severe anxiety, and comorbidity. Participants reported high rates of treatment receipt. The age profile of the sample is biased toward young adults, with higher recruitment of females and the more educated, especially at younger ages.DiscussionThis paper describes the study methodology and descriptive data for GLAD, which represents a large, recontactable resource that will enable future research into risks, outcomes, and treatment for anxiety and depression.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a novel population-level stressor. As such, it is important to examine pandemic-related changes in mental health and to identify which individuals are at greatest risk of worsening symptoms.Methods: Online questionnaires were administered to 34,465 individuals in the UK, recruited from existing cohorts or via social media. Around one third (n = 12,718) with prior diagnoses of depression or anxiety completed pre-pandemic mental health assessments, allowing prospective investigation of symptom change. We examined changes in depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms using prospective, retrospective and global ratings of change assessments. We also examined the effect of key risk factors on changes in symptoms. Research in contextEvidence before this study We conducted a literature search (PubMed, Scopus) with the terms "mental*" or "psychiatr*" and "covid*" or "coronavirus" published before 8th February 2021. This resulted in 4,573 unique references, but only 15 longitudinal studies examining changes in symptoms of mental health conditions from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results to date are mixed. Some studies found increases in mental distress, some found increases in either depression or anxiety, and others saw no observable change in symptoms.Examining individual-level risk factors, heightened vulnerability to worsening mental health during the pandemic has been demonstrated among young people, females, individuals with lower incomes/financial problems and among health care or key workers. Only one previous study used a large sample with prior mental health diagnoses to examine changes in anxiety and depression. This study showed that having a prior mental health diagnosis was associated with higher levels of perceived worsening of mental health but, when examining actual prospectively measured symptoms, a prior mental health diagnosis was actually associated with a lower likelihood of symptom worsening, compared to no prior diagnosis. This discrepancy across measures requires further investigation in order to understand the nature of changing mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Added value of this studyThis study prospectively examined changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD in a large UK-based sample of individuals with prior depression or anxiety. Analyses were supplemented with data from additional cohorts to examine individual difference risk factors with greater statistical power. Inclusion of both prospectively measured and retrospectively estimated changes in symptoms, as well as ratings of perceived change in mental health, allowed closer examination of discrepancies in subjective experience versus actual objective change in symptoms.people who are students or are unemployed. Additionally, discrepancies in estimated symptom change across prospective and retrospective measures highlight the importance of using prospectively collected data to examine longitudinal changes.

Background: Anxiety and depression are common, debilitating and costly. These disorders are influenced by multiple risk factors, from genes to psychological vulnerabilities and environmental stressors but research is hampered by a lack of sufficiently large comprehensive studies. We are recruiting 40,000 individuals with lifetime depression or anxiety, with broad assessment of risks to facilitate future research. Methods: The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study (www.gladstudy.org.uk) recruits individuals with depression or anxiety into the NIHR Mental Health BioResource. Participants invited to join the study (via media campaigns) provide demographic, environmental and genetic data, and consent for medical record linkage and recontact. Results: Online recruitment was effective; 41,892 consented and 26,877 participants completed the questionnaire by July 2019. Participants' questionnaire data identified very high rates recurrent depression, severe anxiety and comorbidity. Participants reported high rates of treatment receipt. The age profile of sample is biased toward young adults, with higher recruitment of females and the better educated, especially at younger ages. Discussion: This paper describes the study methodology and descriptive data for GLAD, which represents a large, recontactable resource that will enable future research into risks, outcomes and treatment for anxiety and depression.