A hypothesis would forever remain so until an experiment is performed to confirm or refute it. In the world of science and medicine, the theories and laws formulated originated as hypotheses or mere thoughts that needed to be tested and verified as true or false.
Coronavirus since its onset has taught the whole world many lessons that it would have never learnt in its absence. People now forced to remain at home, work from home, and come practically left to die within the confines of their homes. But in the midst of these, some things remain a puzzle to most people. I am going to talk about a few of such hypotheses, some of which I will bring up, that coronavirus outbreak lends some credibility to.
Health Hypothesis That Coronavirus Lends Support To
These 2 hypotheses may already have existed or I may be the first to bring them up as far as this post is concerned and they are based on my personal observation of the events around me.
First, let me specify my scientific conditions as required for every experimental setting or hypothesis.
Index field: Africa and some parts of the Americas
Population it applies to: World population
Subject: Coronavirus impact on the mental health of people
Exclusion criteria: People who are not already mentally ill
Inclusion criteria: People who are grossly affected by the coronavirus pandemic
Time frame: 6 months
Psychology of Medicine
There has been an aspect of medicine that places emphasis on the mind. It is commonly known that a drug works better when the patient believes that the drug would work for them.
In the hospital, some patients with some medical conditions would request for some drugs before they can certify themselves free from the illness. This may apply to some mental conditions as well as some somatic conditions. This aspect of medicine is covered wholly by Psychosomatic Medicine, a branch of medicine that deals with the inter-relationship between social, behavioural and psychological processes of body processes and quality of life in humans and animals.
Another field of Mind Therapy talks about how to harness the power of the mind to heal even some major body diseases. Most of these have not been fully proved but there have been some success stories so far. But now, how does coronavirus explain the impact of the mind on healing?
Common flu has disappeared, you noticed?
Was I the only one who noticed it? The potential stigma associated with the cough related to the coronavirus has instigated a sudden disappearance of the common flu symptoms. I’ve encountered people who try to suppress reflex coughing, or other symptoms of common cold this period just because they do not want to become suspects for the coronavirus disease.
And I have received quite some convincing testimonials about how the symptoms disappeared after a while.
Does it then mean that the disappearance of the common cold symptoms was due to the therapeutic power of the mind? The people do not want to be seen as coronavirus infected because of the symptoms of the common cold, so they heal themselves consciously? This lends suggestion to that hypothesis which is slowly evolving into a standing theory. But for now, you should try to look out for how true the observation is, that it is possible for symptoms of the common cold to disappear just because the patient does not want to have the disease and be labelled with something more sinister.
Depression, Stress and Suicide
Suicide has been closely linked to two major conditions; Stress and depression, amongst others. However, as the years rolled by, depression was slowly taking the lead of the number one cause of suicide in the world. But coronavirus has revealed to us that there may be another component of the depression that could instigate suicide ideation and suicide.
The global lockdowns have cut down many forms of social interactions and activity. Depression is expected to skyrocket, with the consequent increase in the suicide rate. But coronavirus has given an opposite picture of what was expected, especially within my own area of observation. Suicide rates did not increase significantly even when boredom remains on the increase. Does it mean that depression is less likely to cause suicide than stressful conditions?
There may be other inter-related factors that may predispose to suicide other than just depression. The response of people to the lockdown-associated depression and boredom has shown that depression alone is not the cause of suicide.
Can we say that the full statistics of suicides are not well-reported than before? Are there some other factors that cushion the impact of the boredom imposed by coronavirus lockdown? Or are there some pleasurable activities that make the boredom more fun that would have been expected?
These are hypotheses in the context of this writeup but any experimental setup that would validate them opens up our knowledge to a whole new world of great exploits. The idea of depression is the major cause of suicide in the developed countries of America and Europe, but very rarely causing suicide in the developing world also goes to confirm that there is more to suicide and depression than just depression alone.
I am a seasoned writer, not because I am some genius but thanks to many years of trials, failure, and near successes. I curate the most content on this website; all geared towards making you a better and happier audience.
