Depression and Its Relationship with Coping Strategies and Illness Perceptions during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Greece: A Cross-Sectional Survey of the Population

Abstract

Objective. The COVID-19 epidemic has shown a more benign course in Greece possibly due to the early lockdown measures. Mental health consequences of the lockdown however are unknown. In addition, illness perceptions and relevant strategies to cope with the stress of the epidemic may have played a role in complying with the restrictions. We conducted a survey of the Greek population with the aim to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and depression during the lockdown, the emotional impact of the epidemic, and the effect of coping strategies and illness perceptions in mental health. Methods. Adult persons were invited during the peak of the lockdown period through social media. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the PHQ-9 and GAD-2 scales, respectively. Coping strategies were assessed with selected items of the Brief COPE questionnaire, while illness beliefs were assessed with items from the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R). Results. A total of 3379 individuals took part. A strong emotional impact of the epidemic was more often in women and in those with severe financial difficulties. Levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms were high but similar to past assessments. Participants showed high levels of personal control and used more often positive strategies to cope with the stress of the epidemic. Depressive symptoms were higher in the younger, in students, in those with a stronger emotional impact, in those isolated due to symptoms, and those overexposed to media for COVID-19-related news. Lower levels of depression were seen in those using positive coping strategies and showing high levels of personal and treatment control. Conclusions. The study shows that certain psychological and social determinants were associated with increased depressive symptoms during the lockdown warranting the development of public health guidelines to mitigate the effects of the epidemic to the mental health of the population.

Influencing Factors of Psychological Well-Being of the Non-designated Hospital Staff in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Interventions that decrease the use of maladaptive coping style can also reduce long-term distress ( 48 ). However, poor mental health status influences the approaches of coping strategy which could result in a negative effect ( 49 ). Social support, as an important coping resource, contributes to developing individual resilience and effective coping skills in adverse circumstances ( 50 , 51 ).…”

The psychological impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures in the world

“…Validated versions of the tests in the various languages spoken in the seven countries were employed. Moreover, considering previous researches performed on a one-country level, IES-R and DASS-21 were used during COVID-19 research in China ( Hao et al., 2020 ), India ( Chew et al., 2020 ), Vietnam ( Le et al., 2020 ), Singapore ( Tan et al., 2020 ), and Philippines ( Tee et al., 2020 ); MASS was adopted in Italy ( Conversano et al., 2020 ; Baiano et al., 2020 ) and Brazil (Kozasa et al., 2020); PSS10 was used in Brazil (Kozasa et al., 2020), China ( Duan et al., 2020 ; Yan et al., 2020 ) and Colombia ( Pedrozo-Pupo et al., 2020 ); PHQ9 was employed in Greece ( Skapinakis et al., 2020 ), Italy ( Rapisarda et al., 2020 ), Spain ( Garre-Olmo et al., 2021 ) and China ( Yao, 2020 ); Brief-COPE was used in Australia ( Gurvich et al., 2020 ), Greece ( Skapinakis et al., 2020 ), United Kingdom ( Dawson and Golijani-Moghaddam, 2020 ) and USA ( Umucu and Lee, 2020 ).…”

Immediate impact of stay-at-home orders to control COVID-19 transmission on mental well-being in Bangladeshi adults: Patterns, Explanations, and future directions

“…One in China indicated that during the pandemic the mental health of female health care workers took a substantial toll, with them being far more anxious than men [ 18 , 19 ]. While other research supported the idea that females had lower mental well-being scores throughout the pandemic [ 20 , 21 ].…”