Psychological distress related to COVID-19 – The contribution of continuous traumatic stress

Lahav, Yael

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.141

Cited by 184 publications

(209 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…All age groups exhibited a significant and comparable increase in mental distress in response to the COVID-19 lockdown, with the older age group showing generally lower levels of mental distress. These longitudinal findings extend our current understanding of the interaction between age and COVID-19 (50)(51)(52) by showing that all age groups exhibited the same susceptibility to COVID-19-induced mental distress. Crosssectional analysis of these findings indicated a benefit of the generally lower mental distress in the older group despite the same susceptibility to COVID-19-induced mental distress compared to other age groups.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Risk Factors Underlying COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Mental Distress

et al. 2020

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Recent reports suggest that the COVID-19 lockdown resulted in changes in mental health, however, potential age-related changes and risk factors remain unknown. We measured COVID-19 lockdown-induced stress levels and the severity of depressive symptoms prior to and during the COVID-19 lockdown in different age groups and then searched for potential risk factors in a well-characterized general population-based sample. A total of 715 participants were tested for mental distress and related risk factors at two time-points, baseline testing prior to COVID-19 and follow-up testing during COVID-19, using a battery of validated psychological tests including the Perceived Stress Scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire. Longitudinal measurements revealed that the prevalence of moderate to high stress and the severity of depressive symptoms increased 1.4- and 5.5-fold, respectively, during the COVID-19 lockdown. This surge in mental distress was more severe in women, but was present in all age groups with the older age group exhibiting, cross-sectionally, the lowest levels of mental distress prior to and during the lockdown. Illness perception, personality characteristics such as a feeling of loneliness, and several lifestyle components were found to be associated with a significant increase in mental distress. The observed changes in mental health and the identified potential risk factors underlying these changes provide critical data justifying timely and public emergency-tailored preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic mental health interventions, which should be integrated into future public health policies globally.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Risk Factors Underlying COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Mental Distress

et al. 2020

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“…These presentations have been also related to the quarantine, possible adverse effects of treatments such as corticosteroids [ 2 ], or traumatic experience of media exposure or hospitalization with uncertainty regarding the prognosis [ 25 ]. Moreover, it has been suggested that women [ 3 ] and trauma survivors could be at risk for such complications [ 26 ]. In contrast, no relationship was found in our study with the initial clinical, biological, and radiological severity (NEWS score, hospitalization in intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, CRP level, CT score).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

18F-FDG brain PET hypometabolism in patients with long COVID

Guedj

Campion

Dudouet

et al. 2021

Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging

333

275

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Purpose In the context of the worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), some patients report functional complaints after apparent recovery from COVID-19. This clinical presentation has been referred as "long COVID." We here present a retrospective analysis of 18 F-FDG brain PET of long COVID patients from the same center with a biologically confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistent functional complaints at least 3 weeks after the initial infection. Methods PET scans of 35 patients with long COVID were compared using whole-brain voxel-based analysis to a local database of 44 healthy subjects controlled for age and sex to characterize cerebral hypometabolism. The individual relevance of this metabolic profile was evaluated to classify patients and healthy subjects. Finally, the PET abnormalities were exploratory compared with the patients' characteristics and functional complaints. Results In comparison to healthy subjects, patients with long COVID exhibited bilateral hypometabolism in the bilateral rectal/orbital gyrus, including the olfactory gyrus; the right temporal lobe, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, extending to the right thalamus; the bilateral pons/medulla brainstem; the bilateral cerebellum (p-voxel < 0.001 uncorrected, p-cluster < 0.05 FWE-corrected). These metabolic clusters were highly discriminant to distinguish patients and healthy subjects (100% correct classification). These clusters of hypometabolism were significantly associated with more numerous functional complaints (brainstem and cerebellar clusters), and all associated with the occurrence of certain symptoms (hyposmia/anosmia, memory/cognitive impairment, pain and insomnia) (p < 0.05). In a more preliminary analysis, the metabolism of the frontal cluster which included the olfactory gyrus was worse in the 7 patients treated by ACE drugs for high blood pressure (p = 0.032), and better in the 3 patients that had used nasal decongestant spray at the infectious stage (p < 0.001). Conclusion This study demonstrates a profile of brain PET hypometabolism in long COVID patients with biologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 and persistent functional complaints more than 3 weeks after the initial infection symptoms, involving the olfactory gyrus and connected limbic/paralimbic regions, extended to the brainstem and the cerebellum. These hypometabolisms are associated with patients' symptoms, with a biomarker value to identify and potentially follow these patients. The hypometabolism of the frontal cluster, which included the olfactory gyrus, seems to be linked to ACE This article is part of the Topical Collection on Neurology

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“… 6 Females were reported to suffer greater psychological distress related to COVID-19. 7 The unprecedented pandemic morbidity, mortality, and lockdown measures are expected to affect mental health of the population with possible changes in sexual behaviors. 8 We hypothesized that women being more susceptible to psychological stress will suffer greater sexual stress.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological and Sexual Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt: Are Women Suffering More?

et al. 2021

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Introduction: Psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic include pandemic triggered feelings of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety added to the effects of restricting the population's activities in lockdown. Aim: We aimed to study the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on sexual satisfaction of females and males in Egypt and to evaluate possible predictive factors. Methods: Married men and females in Egypt were invited to respond to an online questionnaire. The questionnaire addressed medical history, socioeconomic status, sexual performance satisfaction before and during the lockdown in addition to validated Arabic questionnaires for depression, sexual function in males and females, and sexual satisfaction (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Female Sexual Function Index, International Index of Erectile Function-5, Index of Sexual Satisfaction, respectively). Main outcome measure: The main outcome measures were frequency of depression, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and sexual satisfaction in males and females during COVID-19 lockdown. Results: A total of 479 females and 217 males completed the questionnaire. Sexual satisfaction was significantly higher before (91.2%, 73.5%) than during lockdown (70.5%, 56.2%) in both males and females, respectively. During lockdown, significantly more males (70.5%) reported being satisfied with their sexual performance than females (56.2%) (P < .001). More than half of the male subjects (68.2%) had no erectile dysfunction while 97.3% females scored 26.5 on the Female Sexual Function Index scale suggestive of sexual difficulties. Sexual stress was significantly greater in females (70.8%) than males (63.1%). Educational level, occupation, anxiety, and erectile dysfunction were independently associated with sexual stress in males. Being a housewife or unemployed, husband's age >35 years, marriage duration of 5-10 years, anxiety, and female sexual dysfunction were predictors of sexual relation stress in females. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic was associated with lower sexual satisfaction in both genders. Females however suffered more anxiety and depression and thereby greater risk of sexual function difficulties and sexual dissatisfaction. Intervention strategies in order to lessen the suffering of affected individuals particularly after the pandemic are recommended.

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Psychological distress related to COVID-19 – The contribution of continuous traumatic stress

Abstract: Highlights Trauma survivors reported elevated psychiatric symptomatology related to COVID-19 Continuous traumatic stress was associated with symptomatology during COVID-19 Continuous traumatic stress moderated the relations between PTSD and symptomatology

Cited by 184 publications

References 40 publications

Risk Factors Underlying COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Mental Distress

Risk Factors Underlying COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Mental Distress

18F-FDG brain PET hypometabolism in patients with long COVID

Psychological and Sexual Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt: Are Women Suffering More?

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