Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety, depression and distress – online survey results amid the pandemic in Russia

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Background. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic evoked a variety of research into the virus and its effects on mentalhealth. A variety of mental health and psychological problems have been reported: stress, anxiety, depressivesymptoms, insomnia, denial, stigma, anger and fear. Objectives. To assess the level of anxiety, depression and distress in the general population during the lockdownin Russia and to reveal factors associated with distress. Methods. An online survey was carried out from 2227 April 2020 (the fourth week of lockdown) among the generalpopulation (mostly Moscow residents). The survey questions covered general information about peoples social anddemographic characteristics, experience of COVID-19, health condition (physical and mental), attitudes and views onthe pandemic, and the need for psychological support. The survey included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale(HADS) and evaluation of the preceding weeks subjective distress level using a visual numeric scale (from 0 to 10). Wealso asked respondents to specify the causes of distress, adopted from the WHO information sheet relating to themajor psychological challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results. In total, 352 responses were collected (men = 74, women = 278; age (M SD) = 36.81 11.36 y.o.).Most respondents (n = 225, 63.92%) did not have any personal experience of the coronavirus infection. Normallevels of anxiety and depression scores were prevalent in the sample. Higher than normal levels of HADS anxiety/depression ( 7 scores) were observed in 105 (29.83%) and 59 (16.76%) respondents, respectively; mean (95% CI)scores for HADS anxiety/depression were 6.23 [5.77, 6.68] /4.65 [4.22, 5.08] (women) and 4.20 [3.32, 5.09] /3.46[2.63, 4.29] (men), respectively. The leading causes of distress were: 1) the risk of financial problems in the future (n = 267, 76.3%); 2) violationof plans and the disruption to normal life (n = 235, 67.1%; and n = 240, 68.6%, respectively); 3) the health of elderlyor chronically diseased relatives (n = 205, 58.6%) and 4) being in self-isolation (n = 186, 53.1%). Conclusion. The level of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in the study sample did not exceed thenorm for the population in non-pandemic conditions. Our assessment of distress levels captured existing emotionalproblems, and distress levels were found to be connected with the reported need for psychological support.

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Karpenko, O. A., Syunyakov, T. S., Kulygina, M. A., Pavlichenko, A. V., Chetkina, A. S., & Andrushchenko, A. V. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety, depression and distress – online survey results amid the pandemic in Russia. Consortium Psychiatricum. https://doi.org/10.17650/2712-7672-2020-1-1-8-20