A Cross-Sectional Time Course of COVID-19 Related Worry, Perceived Stress, and General Anxiety in the Context of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-like Symptomatology

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic within the United States of America resulted in over 800,000 deaths as of February 2022 and has been addressed by social distancing or stay-at-home measures. Collective prolonged multimodal trauma on this scale is likely to elicit symptomatology in the general population consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), somatization, anxiety, and stress. The psychological component of this response contributes substantially to the burden of this disease worldwide. This cross-sectional study examines the relationship between COVID-19-related concern, anxiety, and perceived stress on PTSD-like symptomatology over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were recruited via social media within the United States of America between 8th May 2020 and 11th August 2021 to complete an internet questionnaire including mood, personality, and COVID-19-specific scales. General anxiety and PTSD-like symptomatology were above the screening cutoffs for most respondents. These measures increased in severity over the pandemic, with the change point of our Concern scale preceding that of the other significant measures. Measures of COVID-19-related concern, generalized anxiety, and PTSD-like symptomatology were strongly correlated with each other. Anxiety, perceived stress, and PTSD-like symptomatology are strongly interrelated, increase with pandemic length, and are linked to reported levels of concern over COVID-19. These observations may aid future research and policy as the pandemic continues.

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The Relationship among Anxiety, Worry, Perceived Stress, Defense Mechanisms, and High Levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms: A Discriminant Analytic Approach

“…State anxiety can be another element linked to post-traumatic stress disorder [ 25 ]. Anxiety may be defined as a negative emotional state, characterized by tension, discomfort, and apprehension about the possibility of physical or psychological damage, often accompanied by physiological activation [ 26 , 27 ].…”

Long-Term Consequences of COVID-19: A 1-Year Analysis

“…However, these results need to be viewed with caution given that the psychological data of the comparison cohort stemmed from evaluations conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, these scores could not capture the profound multifactorial burden that the COVID-19 pandemic has represented on mental health in the global population since 2019 [ 59 , 60 ].…”