Older people experienced the greatest rise in anxiety during the first national coronavirus lockdown and should be prioritised for mental health support as restrictions are eased, research suggests. The study by UK and U.S. researchers, believed to be the largest of its kind, found “wide-ranging positive and negative effects” on the UK population’s mental health and wellbeing. More than 379,000 people took part in the Great British Intelligence Test, promoted by the BBC, prior to the pandemic in January 2020 and between May and June 2020, during the first national lockdown. The study is a collaboration between Imperial College London, King’s College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Southampton, the University of Chicago, and the NHS foundation trusts of Southern Health and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The largest changes were seen in anxiety levels, with the proportion of people feeling anxious or on edge at least several times a …