If you happened to search Google for help diagnosing an anxiety attack as the coronavirus pandemic swept through the U.S. earlier this year, a new study suggests you weren’t alone.
A new study by the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California San Diego analyzed Google Trends dating back 16 years and found that people searched for severe anxiety-related information at record highs beginning in March when the coronavirus pandemic was first declared a national emergency.
The study research looked for searches on “anxiety” or “panic” in combination with “attack,” such as “panic attack,” “signs of anxiety attack,” “anxiety attack symptoms,” and so forth, accordingto the study published Monday in JAMA Network Open.
Study publisher Qualcomm said Anxiety-related searches were roughly 11% higher than usual over the 58 days after President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, according to the researchers who worked in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, Barnard College and the Institute for Disease Modeling.
Overall, there were 3.4 million total searches for anxiety, about 375,000 more than usual, the researchers found.
More: CNBC.COM