(NewsNation) — The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade spurred a rise in anxiety and depression symptoms, particularly in states with abortion-ban trigger laws, according to a new study.
The research published Tuesday in JAMA analyzed data from nearly 720,000 respondents in the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey from December 2021 to January 2023. It found residents in states with trigger laws experienced a higher increase in anxiety and depression symptoms than those in states without such laws.
The Dobbs v. Jackson decision was handed down in June 2022, and a draft of the opinion was leaked a month earlier. The decision triggered laws banning abortion in 13 states that passed legislation in anticipation of Roe being overturned.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found self-reported rates of anxiety and depression were higher among residents in those 13 states than the other 37.
“These findings suggest that changes in abortion policy can impact mental health at the population level,” study senior author Dr. Matthew Eisenberg said in a news release. “Policymakers should, of course, be aware of the first-order impacts of policies, but studies such as this suggest that they should also consider downstream policy effects on mental health, even when a policy is not specifically targeting mental health.”
The data was collected from the Household Pulse Survey, which the U.S. Census Bureau launched in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It includes Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), which is often used a screening tool by physicians to assess anxiety and depression. It ranges scores from zero to 12, with 0-2 indicating no symptoms of depression/anxiety, 3-5 indicating mild symptoms and 6-12 signaling moderate to severe cases.
Researchers calculated average scores during a “baseline” interval from December 2021 to May 2023, when the draft opinion was leaked. Scores were compared to an “opinion” interval between June 24, 2022, when the opinion was officially announced, and January 2023.
Prior to the Dobbs decision, the mean PHQ-4 score among respondents in trigger law states was 3.51 — it jumped to 3.81 afterward, an 8.5% increase. In non-trigger states, the mean score among respondents rose from 3.31 pre-Dobbs to 3.49 post-Dobbs, a 5.4% increase.
Among women age 18-45, the increase in trigger states was 3.03% (4.62 vs. 4.76 PHQ-4 score), while scores in non-trigger stages decreased by 1.75% (4.57 vs. 4.49), according to the news release.
The scores indicate residents in both sets of states experienced a rise in self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms, but the increase was greater in states with trigger laws and among women of reproductive age.
Benjamin Thornburg, the study’s lead author, noted the findings build on emerging literature.
“Prior to Dobbs, research established that denial to abortion access was associated with adverse outcomes, including symptoms of anxiety,” Thornburg said. “Emerging research has suggested that a similar trend may emerge at the national level as states enact more restrictive abortion policies following Dobbs, which is precisely what our study reveals.”
Researchers plan to study other impacts of Dobbs, such as the supply of new physicians in states where abortion has been banned or severely restricted.
