The psychological impact of COVID-19-related lockdown measures among a sample of Italian patients with eating disorders: a preliminary longitudinal study.
Eat Weight Disord
; 26(8): 2771-2777, 2021 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1083155
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To explore the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression, along with PTSD- and ED-related symptoms, across a sample of patients with Eating Disorders (EDs) compared to a group of healthy controls (HC) during the lockdown period in Italy; to assess whether patients' reported aforementioned psychiatric symptoms improved, remained stable or worsened with the easing of the lockdown measures.METHODS:
t0 assessment (during lockdown) 59 ED patients and 43 HC completed an online survey, including the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 items (DASS-21), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and specific ad-hoc questions extracted from the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire; t1 assessment (post-lockdown) 40 EDs patients, a subset of the t0 sample, completed the same assessment 2 months after t0.RESULTS:
EDs patients scored higher than HC at the DASS-21, IES-R and PSS. At t1, levels of stress, anxiety and depression were not different than at t0, but symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), patients' reported level of psychological wellbeing and specific EDs symptomatology improved.DISCUSSION:
During the lockdown, EDs patients presented significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD- and ED-related symptoms than HC. With the easing of the lockdown, PTSD- and ED-related symptoms improved, but high levels of stress, anxiety and depression persisted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level I, experimental study.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Feeding and Eating Disorders
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Eat Weight Disord
Journal subject:
Gastroenterology
/
Metabolism
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S40519-021-01137-0
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