The impact of confinement and other stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic on depression and anxiety in the Lebanese context: an online cross-sectional survey (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rami Khalil ◽  
Ramez Dagher ◽  
Myriam Zarzour ◽  
Hanna Abi-Akl ◽  
Ghassan Sleilaty ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Confinement measures were taken since February 2020 in Lebanon, a country already going through a socio-economic crisis, to fight the new coronavirus pandemic. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychological impact of the confinement in this country. METHODS A cross-sectional, online survey, was conducted during the confinement period in order to assess depression and anxiety symptoms as well as eating and substance use disorders using self-rating scales (the DASS-21, SCOFF and CAGE-AID respectively), while identifying factors that might affect those outcomes. RESULTS Overall, 1133 participants completed the questionnaire. The DASS-21 score was positively correlated with the impact of confinement on participants’ lifestyle and confinement duration (Spearman’s rho= 0.424; p<0.001). A highest effect on DASS-21 score was related to the intensity of other stressful life events that have happened during the last 3 months (Spearman’s rho= 0.506; p<0.001). Linear regression analysis also showed that age, monthly income, professional status, the SCOFF and CAGE-AID scores, the intensity of the confinement’s impact on lifestyle and having been through other stressful life events unrelated to the confinement per se, were risk factors affecting significantly the DASS-21 score. CONCLUSIONS Confinement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon, as well as other stressful life event that have happened during the last 3 months, were associated with higher depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. CLINICALTRIAL LBCTR2020043459

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-80
Author(s):  
Marc Spielmanns

Background: There is a general notion that stressful life events may cause mental and physical health problems. Objectives: We aimed to describe stressful life events reported by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to assess their impact on health outcomes and behaviors. Methods: Two hundred and sixty-six primary care patients who participated in the ICE COLD ERIC cohort study were asked to document any stressful life events in the past 3 years. We assessed the before-after (the event) changes for symptoms of depression and anxiety, health status, dyspnea-related quality of life, exacerbations, cigarette use, and physical activity. We used linear regression analysis to estimate the crude and adjusted magnitude of the before-after changes. Results: About 41% (110/266) of patients reported the experience of any stressful life events and «death of relatives/important persons» was most common (31%). After accounting for age, sex, living status, lung function, and anxiety/depression status at baseline, experiencing any stressful life events was associated with a 0.9-point increase on the depression scale (95% CI 0.3 to 1.4), a 0.8-point increase on the anxiety scale (95% CI 0.3 to 1.3), and a 0.8-point decrease in the physical activity score (95% CI -1.6 to 0). Conclusions: Experiencing stressful life events was associated with a small to moderate increase in symptoms of depression and anxiety in COPD, but no discernable effect was found for other physical outcomes. However, confirmation of these results in other COPD cohorts and identification of patients particularly vulnerable to stressful life events are needed.


1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Jennison

This article is an analysis of stressful life events, the buffering hypothesis, and alcohol use in a national sample of 1,418 respondents 60 years of age and over. The results indicate that older adults who experience stressful losses are significantly more likely to drink excessively than those who have not experienced such losses or who have experienced them to a lesser extent. Increased drinking among older adults may therefore be a reaction to life circumstances in which alcohol represents an attempt to cope with traumatic loss, personal as well as within the kinship network. Supportive resources of spouse, family, friends, and church appear to have a stress-buffering effects that reduces the excessive-drinking response to life crisis. Data suggest, however, that older persons are vulnerable to the magnitude of losses experienced as they grow older and lose more of their family, friends, and peers. These stressors appear to seriously impact their drinking behavior and are not effectively buffered. Respondents report that drinking may increase during periods of prolonged exposure to emotionally depleting life change and loss, when supportive needs may exceed the capacities of personal and social support resources.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Broeren ◽  
Carol Newall ◽  
Helen F. Dodd ◽  
Ruth Locker ◽  
Jennifer L. Hudson

AbstractThe current study investigated the longitudinal relationships among behavioral inhibition (BI), life events, and anxiety in a sample of 102 BI children and 100 behaviorally uninhibited (BUI) children aged 3 to 4 years. Children's parents completed questionnaires on BI, stressful life events, and anxiety symptoms, and were administered a diagnostic interview three times in a 5-year period. In line with our hypotheses, negative life events, particularly negative behavior-dependent life events (i.e., life events that are related to the children's own behaviors), and the impact of negative life events were predictive of increases in subsequent anxiety symptoms, the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder, and increased number of anxiety diagnoses over the 5-year follow-up period. Experiencing more positive, behavior-independent life events decreased the risk of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Furthermore, differences were found in life events between BI and BUI children. That is, BI children experienced fewer positive and specifically positive behavior-dependent life events, and the impact of these positive life events was also lower in BI children than in BUI children. However, BI did not interact with life events in the prediction of anxiety problems as hypothesized. Therefore, this study seems to indicate that BI and life events act as additive risk factors in the development of anxiety problems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eser Sağaltıcı ◽  
Özcan Sönmez ◽  
Ebru Karcı ◽  
Şengül Kocamer Şahin ◽  
Arzu Ertürk

Abstract Objective The current researches during COVID-19 have not yet addressed somatic distress among cancer patients. The aims of this study are to investigate the somatic distress and psychological symptoms levels of cancer patients, and analyze the influencing factors on somatic distress during the pandemic. Methods This cross-sectional study included consecutively selected 216 eligible cancer patients. The Patient Health Questionnaire-15, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist for DSM-5, The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, the Brief Resilience Scale, the Stressful Life Events List due to Pandemic and, demographic and clinical characteristics form were administered to the participants with face to face interviewing. Results The moderate to severe somatic distress rate was % 38 and probable PTSD rate was 20.4%. Depression, anxiety and stress symptoms were 36.1%, 49.1% and 45.4%, respectively, from mild to extremely severe at any level. There were substantial association between somatic symptoms severity and high PTSD, anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms levels. Low educations levels, high anxiety levels, high experience stressful life events, and low psychological resilience predicted high somatic distress levels. Conclusion This study demonstrates the high risk of somatic distress, PTSD, depression, anxiety and stress in patients with cancer during the pandemic. In addition, somatic distress may indicate high levels of psychological symptoms, high experience stressful life events, and low psychological resilience. It underscores the need to assess psychological status during the pandemic, especially those with high level somatic symptoms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 865-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvira V. Bräuner ◽  
Loa Nordkap ◽  
Lærke Priskorn ◽  
Åse Marie Hansen ◽  
Anne Kirstine Bang ◽  
...  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e87653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara L. Tamers ◽  
Cassandra Okechukwu ◽  
Alex A. Bohl ◽  
Alice Guéguen ◽  
Marcel Goldberg ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-63
Author(s):  
AKM Akramul Haque ◽  
AHM Kazi Mostofa Kamal ◽  
Zinat De Laila ◽  
Luna Laila ◽  
Helal Uddin Ahmed ◽  
...  

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric illness with high rate of relapse which is commonly associated with noncompliance of medicine, as well as stress and high expressed emotions. The objective of the study was to determine the factors of relapse among the schizophrenic patients attending in outpatient departments of three tertiary level psychiatric facilities in Bangladesh. This was a cross sectional study conducted from July, 2001 to June, 2002. Two hundred patients including both relapse and nonrelapse cases of schizophrenia and their key relatives were included by purposive sampling. The results showed no statistically significant difference in terms of relapse with age, sex, religion, residence, occupation and level of education (p>0.05), but statistically significant difference was found with marital status and economic status (p<0.01). The proportion of non-compliance was found to be 80% and 14%, of high expressed emotion was 17% and 2% and of the occurrence of stressful life events was 10% and 1% in relapse and non-relapse cases respectively which were statistically significant (p<0.001). The study indicated that stressful life events, high expressed emotion, and noncompliance with medication had a role in schizophrenic patients for its relapse.Bang J Psychiatry December 2015; 29(2): 59-63


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Amelia Díaz ◽  
Eugenia Infanzón ◽  
Ángela Beleña

In this work we study the impact of relinquishment and the adoption process in posttraumatic symptoms and stressful life events in a group of 55 adults that were adopted as children after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The effects of institutionalization, maltreatment and traumatic revelation of the adopted status have also been studied. No significant differences were found between institutionalized and non-institutionalized adoptees in posttraumatic symptomatology and stressful life events frequency. However, maltreated adoptees scored significantly higher in intrusion, arousal and stressful life events frequency than non-maltreated. Similar differences were found in the comparison between adoptees with and without traumatic revelation; those adoptees who suffered traumatic revelation presented significantly higher intrusion, arousal and stressful life events frequency than those who did not suffer traumatic revelation. Traumatic revelation, alone or in association with maltreatment, seems to play an important role in posttraumatic symptoms in the sample studied.


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