Abstract
We examined longitudinal differences in the severity of distress, depression, anxiety, and concerns and behaviors related to COVID-19 during the first two months of this pandemic, correlations between these variables, and interactions of distress with significant sociodemographics across waves. A longitudinal online survey was conducted in the State of Mexico, from 8 April to 27 May, 2020, in a sample of men and women between 18 and 60 years old, using: Impact of Event Scale-6, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, General Anxiety Disoder-7, and a questionnaire of concerns and behaviors related to COVID-19. Six hundred seventy participants were analyzed. Only a mild difference in distress was observed between the two waves and mild correlations of this variable with contagion in oneself and in a relative. Having a high-risk medical condition proved a considerable effect on distress within both waves. Perception of usefulness of preventive measures, concerns of contagion in a relative, and financial and security situations scored high within our questionnaire but did not change in the follow-up. We hypothesize that habituation to distressful events in the Mexican population (emergent resilience) might explain the absence of meaningful differences. Our research adds to the monitoring of mental health in Mexicans during the COVID-19 pandemic; its findings can serve to perform comparisons in other studies and for further meta-analyses.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a substantial impact on the mental health of the worldwide population, as was expected from the beginning in light of the evidence from other disease outbreaks of far lesser duration and scope [1,2,3]
Aiming to provide local information concerning psychological distress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the objectives of the current report were to examine: (1) longitudinal changes in the severities of distress, depression, anxiety, and concerns and behaviors related to COVID-19 during the first two months of this pandemic in Mexico, (2) correlations between these variables, and (3)
The current study had the major goal of providing longitudinal information regarding distress, depression, and anxiety towards COVID-19 in adult individuals from a metropolitan area in the central region of Mexico, during the first two months of the pandemic, adding to the global efforts to keep monitoring psychological variables related to this event
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a substantial impact on the mental health of the worldwide population, as was expected from the beginning in light of the evidence from other disease outbreaks of far lesser duration and scope [1,2,3]. Psychological distress is understood as a persistent feeling of overwhelm and vulnerability in relation to a potentially traumatic event, such as those that disrupts social functioning, like wars, natural disasters, and epidemics In this context, distress is a variable that is commonly assessed as posttraumatic stress symptomatology, characterized by intrusive thoughts, avoidance of the distressful event, and hyperarousal mainly manifested in cognitive alterations, such as dysprosexia and hypervigilance [5]. Anxiety is understood as persistent worry and fear about everyday situations, often expressing in restlessness, irritability, and persistent catastrophic ideation [7] Both depression and anxiety can manifest themselves exclusively, comorbidly [8], or being part of the symptomatology of psychological distress, in the context of stressful events [5,9,10]
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