Victorians' mental health and distress levels suffered through a 112-day COVID-19 lockdown but the pain healed quickly.
Psychological well-being rebounded within two months, according to results of a Monash University-led study released on Friday.
It surveyed 898 working-age Australians before, during and after the second wave lockdown of Melbourne in 2020.
That lockdown was Australia's longest of the COVID-19 pandemic and rules included a five-kilometre limit on travel from home, a nightly curfew, a ban on home visitors and mandatory outdoor masks.
Closing their borders to Victoria, other states and territories avoided a second wave during the period and did not follow it into lockdown.
When comparing the responses of 305 people from Victoria with 593 from elsewhere in Australia, the peer-reviewed study found the lockdown caused increased psychological distress, greater social isolation and work loss.
"Following an abrupt national decline in mental health observed during the early stages of the pandemic, people exposed to an extended lockdown experienced a delay in the recovery of mental health observed in the rest of Australia," the study said.
But once stay-at-home orders were repealed, the mental health consequences - mapped by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and SF-12 mental component score - were "short-lived".
The authors said there was a "resolution of the negative mental health impacts of lockdown within a two-month period, bringing the mental health of Victorian residents back in line with that of the rest of Australia".
"We also observed a pattern of deterioration during lockdown, followed by recovery post lockdown in ... social interactions and engagement in paid work," read the study, led by Daniel Griffiths from the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
Australians' financial stress was highest during the early stages of the pandemic and lessened over time, but no significant difference in stress levels were detected among Victorians - something the study put, in part, down to financial support for businesses.
The study's findings come as COVID-19 continues to put pressure on the state's health network, more than two years into the crisis.
At least 12 people have died since October last year after calls to Victoria's triple-zero service went unanswered or weren't picked up quickly enough.
An independent review of the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority led by former Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton, has been handed to the state government.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said on Friday she is considering the findings and recommendations as well as seeking advice, but declined to provide a timeline for its release.
"This is taking my full attention," she told reporters.
Victoria reported 11,192 new COVID-19 cases and a further four deaths on Friday, with 335 people in hospital battling the virus.
