ABSTRACT

Background: The mental health impact of the COVID-19 crisis may differ from previously studied stressful events in terms of psychological reactions, specific risk factors, and symptom severity across geographic regions worldwide.

Objective: To assess the impact of COVID-19 on a wide range of mental health symptoms, to identify relevant risk factors, to identify the effect of COVID-19 country impact on mental health, and to evaluate regional differences in psychological responses to COVID-19 compared to other stressful events.

Method: 7034 respondents (74% female) participated in the worldwide Global Psychotrauma Screen – Cross-Cultural responses to COVID-19 study (GPS-CCC), reporting on mental health symptoms related to COVID-19 (n = 1838) or other stressful events (n = 5196) from April to November 2020.

Results: Events related to COVID-19 were associated with more mental health symptoms compared to other stressful events, especially symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and dissociation. Lack of social support, psychiatric history, childhood trauma, additional stressful events in the past month, and low resilience predicted more mental health problems for COVID-19 and other stressful events. Higher COVID-19 country impact was associated with increased mental health impact of both COVID-19 and other stressful events. Analysis of differences across geographic regions revealed that in Latin America more mental health symptoms were reported for COVID-19 related events versus other stressful events, while the opposite pattern was seen in North America.

Conclusions: The mental health impact of COVID-19-related stressors covers a wide range of symptoms and is more severe than that of other stressful events. This difference was especially apparent in Latin America. The findings underscore the need for global screening for a wide range of mental health problems as part of a public health approach, allowing for targeted prevention and intervention programs.

摘要

背景：COVID-19 危机对心理健康的影响可能与之前研究的压力事件在全球地理区域的心理反应、特定风险因素和症状严重程度方面有所不同。

目的：评估 COVID-19 对广泛心理健康症状的影响，确定相关风险因素，确定 COVID-19 国家/地区对心理健康影响的影响，并评估对 COVID-19 心理反应的区域差异19 与其他压力事件相比。

方法：7034 名受访者（74% 为女性）参与了全球心理创伤筛查——对 COVID-19 研究的跨文化反应 (GPS-CCC )，报告了与 COVID-19 ( n = 1838) 或其他压力相关的心理健康症状2020 年 4 月至 11 月的事件（n = 5196）。

结果：与其他应激事件相比，与 COVID-19 相关的事件与更多的心理健康症状相关，尤其是 PTSD、焦虑、抑郁、失眠和分离的症状。缺乏社会支持、精神病史、童年创伤、过去一个月的额外压力事件以及低复原力预示着 COVID-19 和其他压力事件会导致更多心理健康问题。较高的 COVID-19 国家影响与 COVID-19 和其他压力事件对心理健康的影响增加有关。对不同地理区域差异的分析表明，与其他压力事件相比，在拉丁美洲，与 COVID-19 相关事件报告的心理健康症状更多，而在北美则出现相反的模式。

结论：与 COVID-19 相关的压力源对心理健康的影响涵盖了广泛的症状，并且比其他压力事件更严重。这种差异在拉丁美洲尤为明显。研究结果强调，作为公共卫生方法的一部分，需要对范围广泛的精神健康问题进行全球筛查，从而允许有针对性的预防和干预计划。