Study Links Remote Work to Higher Rates of Depression, Anxiety, and Mental Health Visits
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A study published in the journal Science found that remote workers experienced a 58% rise in hours spent alone and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and mental health care use compared to workers in jobs that cannot be done remotely. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyzed data from more than half a million American workers across five national surveys spanning roughly a decade around the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings raise concerns that workers may be choosing remote work without fully accounting for its long-term psychological costs, even as remote work has quadrupled from 7% of U.S. workers in 2019 to 28% in 2023.
A study led by Federal Reserve Bank of New York economist Natalia Emanuel, published June 4, 2026 in the journal Science, found that workers in jobs amenable to remote work saw a 58% increase in hours spent alone and a 72% rise in the likelihood of going an entire day without any human contact, compared to workers in jobs requiring in-person presence. The researchers analyzed data from more than 500,000 American workers surveyed between 2011 and 2024, deliberately excluding the peak pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 to isolate the effects of remote work itself. Remote workers also reported higher rates of psychological distress, more visits to mental health professionals, and greater use of prescription psychiatric medications, while no similar increase was observed for unrelated medications like statins. Workers who lived alone fared worst, with their increase in days spent entirely without social contact running ten times that of remote workers living with others, and their mental distress rising at nearly twice the rate. Critically, remote workers did not compensate for lost workplace socializing by spending more time with friends after hours — social contact actually declined relative to in-person workers. Experts caution that the findings do not support blanket return-to-office mandates; rather, they suggest employers should make offices more socially appealing and allow workers flexibility to choose their arrangements. The study estimates that the rise of remote work accounts for roughly a third of the nationwide increase in mental distress observed during the examined period.
What's missing
The study's own key limitation, noted by Smithsonian, is that it categorizes workers by whether their jobs are remotable rather than by how each individual actually works, making it impossible to separate the effects of fully remote versus hybrid arrangements — a significant gap given that hybrid is now the dominant form of remote work. The study also covers only U.S. workers and ends in 2024, leaving open whether workers eventually adapt by building stronger social ties outside of work.
How coverage differed
NPR framed the story around the tension between workers' stated preferences and their actual well-being, emphasizing expert voices on social psychology and individual coping strategies. Smithsonian Magazine placed greater emphasis on the study's methodological limitations — particularly its inability to distinguish fully remote from hybrid workers — and on expert calls for employee choice rather than mandates.
What different sources said
- NPRLeft
People love working from home. But does it love them back? A new study says no
- CBS NewsCenter
Working remotely can hurt people's mental health, research finds
- NewserCenter
Remote Work Comes With a Little-Known Downside
- Smithsonian MagazineCenter
Working From Home Is Making People Lonelier and Worsening Mental Health, a Study Suggests
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