Research on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Methods and Implications in General Population Samples

Abstract

Increasing concern about the mental health sequelae to the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a surge in research and publications on the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in general population samples in relation to the pandemic. We examined how posttraumatic stress disorder in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has been studied to date and found three general themes: (1) assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms relied on self-report measures and often did not determine direct trauma exposure as required by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition Criterion A to diagnose posttraumatic stress disorder; (2) inadequate assessment of pre-existing mental disorders and co-occurring stress; and (3) the use of cross-sectional designs in most studies, often relying on snowball sampling strategies to conduct online surveys. Notwithstanding these methodological limitations, these studies have reported moderate to severe posttraumatic symptoms in 25.8% of the general population on average in relation to the pandemic (ranging from 4.6% to 55.3%). Opportunities for advancing future research that will inform public health planning are discussed.

The Impact of Event Scale-Revised: Examining Its Cutoff Scores among Arab Psychiatric Patients and Healthy Adults within the Context of COVID-19 as a Collective Traumatic Event

“…Because of the offensive effects of this serious, wide-spreading disease, the literature has extensively described the COVID-19 pandemic as a collective trauma, which has been associated with a global increase in PTSD symptoms in different population groups [ 3 , 7 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Methodological flaws in studies on COVID-19-related trauma have been spotted, such as the use of improper/outdated measures, cross-sectional design, and self-report methods of data collection [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Nonetheless, variations in PTSD symptom clusters in people exposed to various trauma have been revealed by different robust statistical methods [ 15 , 24 , 35 , 49 ].…”

“…Same as in many other studies, PTSD symptoms were self-reported in a cross-sectional design [ 44 ], and COVID-19 was assumed to be a collective traumatic event without a verified assessment of whether it was perceived as a direct trauma exposure (criterion A) according to DSM-5 [ 44 ]. A large body of knowledge indicates that considering COVID-19–related PTSD as a diagnosis is questionable regarding PTSD definitions in the ICD-11 and DSM-5 [ 41 , 42 , 44 ]. In this respect, the inclusion of participants who do not consider COVID-19 as trauma may have a dilution effect on COVID-19–related PTSD diagnosis in our samples [ 43 ].…”

“…The IES-R is a 22-item measure, which comprises three subscales that capture the major features of PTSD (intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal) among people exposed to a specific trauma. In this study, the COVID-19 pandemic was considered a collective traumatic experience given that the outbreak and related restrictive measures as well as the infodemic propaganda (e.g., of a new unpreventable and untreatable highly contagious death-causing infection) may cause a sort of persistent stress in everyday life [ 17 ], albeit we did not assess if COVID-19 was perceived as a personally-relevant life-threatening event or not—a methodological flaw in this study, which the readers need to be aware of [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Example items of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal include (item 6, “thought of COVID-19 when I didn’t mean to”), (item 11, “tried not to think about COVID-19”), and (item 21, “watchful or on-guard”) [ 30 ].…”

Predictors of PTSD and Psychological Distress Symptoms of Ukraine Civilians During war

“…Examination of the available research shows that the search for such personality traits is quite limited and refers mainly to individuals who are already diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. 26,27 These individuals tend to score high on neuroticism which is robustly related to many mental disorders. 28,29 Crestani et al report further that PTSD is positively correlated with harm avoidance and self-transcendence, and negatively correlated with self-directedness.…”

How Psychological Symptoms Mediate Perceived COVID-19 Stress and Identity Distress in Emerging Adults

“…Other studies indicated that those psychologically vulnerable before the pandemic or with pre-existing mental and physical health conditions are more likely to report extreme COVID-19-related stressors (Alonzi et al, 2020; Barone et al, 2023; Franic, 2021; Husky et al, 2021; Manchia et al, 2022). Brailovskaia and Margraf (2020) found that pre-pandemic stress among adults predicted COVID-19-related burden at the beginning of the pandemic.…”