Emotional reactivity to war stressors: An experience sampling study in people with and without different psychiatric diagnoses

Abstract

There is a lack of knowledge regarding real‐time emotional reactivity to high‐intensity stressors, particularly in people with mental illness, a potentially vulnerable population. The current study aimed to examine negative emotional reactions to recurring high‐intensity stressors within a continuous war situation, in people with different psychiatric diagnosis types. Experience sampling method was used to examine emotional reactions among 143 civilians exposed to rockets during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war, of them 18.2% with psychosis, 14.7% with anxiety or depression and 67.1% without mental illness. Participants reported exposure to rocket warning sirens and the levels of 10 negative emotions twice a day for 30 days. Negative emotional levels were higher on most emotions following high‐intensity stressors (sirens), that is, emotional reactivity was demonstrated in real‐time during war. Overall, no difference in reactivity was found among the three study groups. Moreover, people with anxiety/depression were less reactive than people without mental illness on sadness and being overwhelmed. The findings indicate similar and sometimes lower emotional reactivity to high‐intensity stressors in people with mental illness compared to the general population. Nevertheless, people with mental illness seem to have significant emotional needs during war, to be addressed in prevention and intervention efforts.

Trauma history predicts depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms better than a psychiatric diagnosis: Comparing wartime, routine time, and early COVID‐19 in Israel

“…In a study on of the 1991–1995 Balkan war, Croatian civilians with a psychiatric diagnosis suffered from higher levels of psychopathological distress than matched German individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis who were not exposed to war (Jovanovic et al., 2010). In an experience sampling methodology study of the same cohort as in the current study, during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war, participants with a psychiatric diagnosis had higher levels of three out of four PTSD symptom clusters, including negative cognitions (Gelkopf et al., 2017), but similar emotional and threat reactivity to rocket warning sirens compared to participants without a psychiatric diagnosis (Gelkopf et al., 2017; Lapid Pickman et al., 2021). Regarding service use and help seeking, one large study observed no change and even a reduction in psychiatric outpatient visits and hospitalizations during the 2000–2002 Intifada in Jerusalem (Levav, 2006).…”

“…The first assessment wave was conducted in July–August during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war (see for example Gelkopf et al., 2019; Greene et al., 2020; Lapid Pickman et al., 2021). All participants were present in Israel and exposed to the war, when more than 4500 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza on Israeli communities, and Israel conducted air and ground operations in Gaza.…”

The Effects of the Processing of Positive Memories Technique on Posttrauma Affect and Cognitions Among Survivors of Trauma: Protocol for a Daily Diary Study

“…We conducted an a priori power analysis using the EMAtools R (Kleiman) package [75] for power curves for multilevel studies. The power analysis was based on two 3-week assessment bursts with 1 questionnaire per day and an estimated intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.36 based on a previous study on daily-level emotions, cognitions, and PTSD [76]. Analysis showed that 70 participants and up to 25% missing data would be sufficient to detect a medium effect size (d=0.5) with 80% power.…”

Цитиколін Та Вітаміни Групи В У Підтримці Функціонального Стану Нервової Системи

“…Варто також зазначити, що непохитний спокій не обов'язково є реак цією на потрясіння здорової людини. Є спостереження, що більш мляво та байдуже на сповіщення повітряної три воги реагують якраз пацієнти з тривогою та депресією, а не здорові люди [5].…”