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Description: Psychiatric consequences of COVID-19 worldwide will permeate all aspects of societal functioning long after the end of the pandemic. According to the 2013 Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study, psychological disorders were the leading cause of disability worldwide, as estimated by the disability-adjusted life-year (DALY). Psychiatric disorders are ranked as the 5th leading cause of DALYs with 266 million cases of anxiety disorders, 253 million cases of major depressive disorder, and acute schizophrenia having the highest disability weight of all diseases (Vos et al, 2015; Murray et al, 2015; Salomon et al, 2015). This extraordinarily high societal burden of mental illness is likely to grow rapidly in the near future. Unfortunately, physical distancing and quarantines that are necessary to stem the spread of the COVID-19 are expected to drastically increase feelings of social disconnection, loneliness and distress. Loneliness and social disconnection are known to play a major role in poor physical and mental health (Cacioppo et al, 2015; Holt-Lunstad et al, 2017; Badcock, Adery & Park, 2020). In addition, based on the catastrophic psychiatric outcomes of SARS survivors (cumulative incidence of DSM disorder in 58.9% of the survivors) (Mak et al, 2019), we expect a significant increase in the incidence of PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use, suicide and other mental disorders, post-COVID among the survivors, their caregivers and healthcare workers. Indeed, preliminary results from China confirm the high prevalence of PTSD among the survivors of COVID-19 (Bo et al, 2020) and mental illness among the general population (Gao et al, 2020). Since early March, we have been conducting an online, anonymous survey (Vanderbilt IRB exempt status #200337) to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. There were two broad goals of this first survey. First, we sought to examine the relationships among demographics, current living situation, levels of loneliness, social network size, mood, anxiety and stress levels, psychosis proneness, current health status, and the duration of social distancing/quarantine to identify risk and protective factors. Second, we aimed to compare psychiatric outcome across multiple countries to examine the potential impact of culture and social factors. We offer this survey in English, French, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and German, and have formed a research network to compare data from the US, France, Korea, Hong Kong, Spanish-speaking countries and Germany. Preliminary analyses of data from Hong Kong and the U.S. indicate population-wide increase in depression, anxiety, stress and psychosis-risk that are closely related to loneliness but not social network size. From July, we will begin a new online study (Vanderbilt University IRB exempt status #201000) that builds upon the first survey. There are three aims. First, we will examine the impact of COVID-related social distancing protocols on our perception of preferred social distance, which might alter interpersonal behavior. Second, we will collaborate with Natalie Robbins and Steve Wernke in the Department of Anthropology at Vanderbilt to create a geographical documentation of human distress by mapping loneliness, mental illness, stress, and preferred social distance. Third, we will examine racial /ethnic disparities in mental health status during the pandemic. Based on the results of these two survey studies, we plan to develop a web-based and personalized intervention tool to support mental health. References: Badcock J, Adery LH, Park S. (in press 2020) Loneliness in psychosis: A practical review and critique for clinicians. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice Bo, H. X., Li, W., Yang, Y., Wang, Y., Zhang, Q., Cheung, T., ... & Xiang, Y. T. (2020). Posttraumatic stress symptoms and attitude toward crisis mental health services among clinically stable patients with COVID-19 in China. Psychological Medicine, 1-7. Cacioppo, S., Grippo, A. J., London, S., Goossens, L., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2015). Loneliness: Clinical import and interventions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 238-249. Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., ... & Dai, J. (2020). Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. Plos one, 15(4), e0231924. Holt-Lunstad, J., Robles, T. F., & Sbarra, D. A. (2017). Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States. American Psychologist, 72(6), 517. Mak, I. W. C., Chu, C. M., Pan, P. C., Yiu, M. G. C., & Chan, V. L. (2009). Long-term psychiatric morbidities among SARS survivors. General hospital psychiatry, 31(4), 318-326. Murray, C. J., Barber, R. M., Foreman, K. J., Ozgoren, A. A., Abd-Allah, F., Abera, S. F., ... & Abu-Rmeileh, N. M. (2015). Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990–2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition. The Lancet, 386(10009), 2145-2191. Salomon, Joshua A., Juanita A. Haagsma, Adrian Davis, Charline Maertens de Noordhout, Suzanne Polinder, Arie H. Havelaar, Alessandro Cassini et al. "Disability weights for the Global Burden of Disease 2013 study." The Lancet Global Health 3, no. 11 (2015): e712-e723. Vos, T., Barber, R. M., Bell, B., Bertozzi-Villa, A., Biryukov, S., Bolliger, I., ... & Duan, L. (2015). Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet, 386(9995), 743-800.