COVID‐19‐related psychiatric impact on Italian adolescent population: A cross‐sectional cohort study

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence rate and sociodemographic correlates of COVID-19-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and COVID-19-related acute stress disorder (ASD) among Italian adolescents, their level of stress, perception of parental stress, and connection with mental health. Adolescents aged 12-18 years compiled an online questionnaire designed through validated diagnostic instruments. We enrolled 1262 adolescents who declared that they had not experienced any previous traumatic events. Participants were divided into two groups: 118 adolescents with psychiatric problems (APP+) and 1144 without (APP−). In total, 79.52% reported isolated COVID-19-related ASD (29.48%) or PTSD symptoms (50.04%). One adolescent met the diagnosis of COVID-19-related ASD and two met the diagnosis of COVID-19-related PTSD, according to DSM-5. Adolescents with subthreshold COVID-19-related ASD and PTSD symptoms referred the highest levels of personal stress and adolescents with psychiatric/psychological conditions experienced higher stress. Health measures should be urgently employed prioritizing psychosocial stressors among adolescent population.

Characterization of Wellbeing and its Relationship with Exposure to Violence in Mexican and Chilean Early and Late Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Therefore, lockdown has had a negative psychological impact on the emotional wellbeing of this population, increasing the already high rate of mental health problems reported before the pandemic (Sadler et al, 2021). A recent systematic review assessed the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of adolescents around the world, showing that adolescents present higher rates of anxiety, depression, and stress (Jones et al, 2021), particularly those with psychiatric or psychological conditions (Mensi et al, 2021).…”

The impact of impulsivity and school attendance on COVID‐19 spread: A web‐based cross‐sectional questionnaire

“…A study was found that adolescents with subthreshold psychiatric/psychological problems and COVID‐19‐related acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms reported the highest levels of personal stress, while adolescents with psychiatric/psychological disorders reported the greatest levels of stress. Prioritizing psychosocial stresses among the adolescent population should be a top priority for health efforts (Mensi et al, 2021 ). Individuals who fully complied with COVID‐19 measures had higher phobia scores associated with COVID‐19 as expected in our study.…”

Prevalence and related factors of child posttraumatic stress disorder during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Of the 132 screened full texts, 82 studies were excluded because their topic did not meet our inclusion criteria, and 30 studies were excluded because insufficient data were available to include them in the systematic review. In the end, 18 studies (15 written in English and 3 written in Chinese) were included in our systematic review [10][11][12][13][14][15][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], of which 10 studies were included in our meta-analysis [11,12,14,15,[23][24][25][26][27]29]. The remaining eight studies could only be included in our systematic review because insufficient data were available for the meta-analysis.…”

“…Therefore, we describe discuss these risk factors of child PTSD in a systematic review. We classified each risk factor into one of four categories: (a) personal and family characteristics, (b) infectious diseases related factors, (c) internal and external support system ('external system' refers to support from outside the individual [e.g., government], while 'internal system' refers to supporting individual perspective [e.g., resilience]), and (d) psychological and behavioral changes [10][11][12][13][14][15][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”