Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, many governments have implemented national or regional lockdowns to slow the spread of infection. The widely anticipated negative impact these interventions would have on families, including on their mental health, were not included in decision models. The purpose of this editorial is, therefore, to stimulate debate by considering some of the barriers that have stopped governments setting the benefits of lockdown against, in particular, mental health costs during this process and so to make possible a more balanced approach going forward. First, evidence that lockdown causes mental health problems needs to be stronger. Natural experimental studies will play an essential role in providing such evidence. Second, innovative health economic approaches that allow the costs and benefits of lockdown to be compared directly are required. Third, we need to develop public health information strategies that allow more nuanced and complex messages that balance lockdown’s costs and benefits to be communicated. These steps should be accompanied by a major public consultation/engagement campaign aimed at strengthening the publics’ understanding of science and exploring beliefs about how to strike the appropriate balance between costs and benefits in public health intervention decisions.

中文翻译：

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社论：“没有痛苦 - 没有收获”——在健康大流行期间将心理健康成本纳入平衡的“锁定”决策中

自 2020 年初 COVID-19 大流行开始以来，许多政府已实施国家或地区封锁以减缓感染的传播。广泛预期的这些干预措施将对家庭产生的负面影响，包括对他们的心理健康，并未包含在决策模型中。因此，这篇社论的目的是通过考虑阻止政府在此过程中将封锁的好处特别是心理健康成本设置为障碍的一些障碍来激发辩论，从而使更平衡的方法成为可能。首先，需要更有力地证明封锁会导致心理健康问题。自然实验研究将在提供此类证据方面发挥重要作用。第二，需要创新的卫生经济学方法，允许直接比较锁定的成本和收益。第三，我们需要制定公共卫生信息策略，允许传达更微妙和复杂的信息，以平衡锁定的成本和收益。这些步骤应伴随着旨在加强公众对科学的理解并探索如何在公共卫生干预决策中在成本和收益之间取得适当平衡的重大公众咨询/参与活动。