Social Factors Predict Distress Development in Adults With Pre-existing Mental Disorders During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Abstract

Physical distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic are associated with increased psychological distress, especially in people with mental disorders. We investigated which social risk and resilience factors influence distress over time in people with pre-existing mental disorders. We conducted a longitudinal online survey with weekly follow-ups between April and July 2020 (n = 196 individuals with, and n = 545 individuals without pre-existing mental disorders at baseline). Our results show that individuals with, but not those without pre-existing mental disorders displayed higher distress levels when social resources and empathic disconnection are low and perceived social isolation is high. The distress development differed between participants with and without pre-existing mental disorders depending on their level of social resources, empathic disconnection, and perceived social isolation. These findings offer specific information for targeted social interventions to prevent an increase in incidence of mental disorders during physical distancing measures.

Resilience of people with a history of mental disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic: an international 2-years longitudinal prospective study

“…Other authors highlighted the close relations between lack of social support, loneliness, and resilience to imposed restrictions (Li et al, 2021;Szkody et al, 2021). In particular, higher levels of distress in response to social isolation were shown in individuals with mental disorders (Konrad et al, 2022). In accordance, a higher number of people in the household was associated with sustained resilient outcomes.…”

“…In addition to the stress brought on by the pandemic, people with mental disorders may have encountered challenges related to government-imposed restrictions, di culty accessing health care services, decreased physical activity, social isolation, and occupational burden that may have contributed to the worsening of pre-existing clinical conditions (Carpiniello et al, 2020;Konrad et al, 2022;Nosè et al, 2023;Pompili et al, 2022), sometimes leading to the onset of suicidal ideation (Zhu et al, 2022). On the other hand, other studies revealed little impact of the pandemic on mental health of people with mental disorders (Pan et al, 2021;Penninx et al, 2022).…”