The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium
The spread of COVID-19 and the implementation of various containment strategies across the world have seriously disrupted people’s everyday life, and it is especially uncertain what the psychological impact of this pandemic will be for vulnerable individuals, such as psychiatric (ex-)patients. Gover...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Psychologica Belgica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.psychologicabelgica.com/articles/1028 |
| _version_ | 1818650191506440192 |
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| author | Egon Dejonckheere Marlies Houben Evelien Schat Eva Ceulemans Peter Kuppens |
| author_facet | Egon Dejonckheere Marlies Houben Evelien Schat Eva Ceulemans Peter Kuppens |
| author_sort | Egon Dejonckheere |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The spread of COVID-19 and the implementation of various containment strategies across the world have seriously disrupted people’s everyday life, and it is especially uncertain what the psychological impact of this pandemic will be for vulnerable individuals, such as psychiatric (ex-)patients. Governments fear that this virus outbreak may prelude a major mental health crisis, and psychiatrists launch critical calls to flatten an upcoming mental ill-health surge. Here, we aim to add nuance to the idea that we are heading towards a mental health pandemic and that psychiatric populations will unavoidably (re)develop psychopathology. Despite being subjected to the same challenges posed by COVID-19, we argue that people with a history of psychiatric illness will psychologically deal with this adversity in different ways. To showcase the short-term differential impact of COVID-19 on patients’ mental health, we present the day-to-day emotion and symptom trajectories of different psychiatric patients that took part in an experience sampling study before, during, and after the start of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and associated lockdown measures in Belgium. Piecewise regression models show that not all patients’ psychological well-being is affected to a similar degree. As such, we argue that emphasizing human resilience, also among the more vulnerable in society, may be opportune in these unsettling times. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T01:46:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8748283f1e33490c9c469fb5ce870826 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-670X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T01:46:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Psychologica Belgica |
| spelling | doaj.art-8748283f1e33490c9c469fb5ce8708262022-12-21T22:08:11ZengUbiquity PressPsychologica Belgica2054-670X2021-06-0161110.5334/pb.1028807The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in BelgiumEgon Dejonckheere0Marlies Houben1Evelien Schat2Eva Ceulemans3Peter Kuppens4KU Leuven – Faculty of Psychology and Educational SciencesFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Leuven, 3000; Mind-Body Research and Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 7, Leuven, 3000KU Leuven – Faculty of Psychology and Educational SciencesKU Leuven – Faculty of Psychology and Educational SciencesKU Leuven – Faculty of Psychology and Educational SciencesThe spread of COVID-19 and the implementation of various containment strategies across the world have seriously disrupted people’s everyday life, and it is especially uncertain what the psychological impact of this pandemic will be for vulnerable individuals, such as psychiatric (ex-)patients. Governments fear that this virus outbreak may prelude a major mental health crisis, and psychiatrists launch critical calls to flatten an upcoming mental ill-health surge. Here, we aim to add nuance to the idea that we are heading towards a mental health pandemic and that psychiatric populations will unavoidably (re)develop psychopathology. Despite being subjected to the same challenges posed by COVID-19, we argue that people with a history of psychiatric illness will psychologically deal with this adversity in different ways. To showcase the short-term differential impact of COVID-19 on patients’ mental health, we present the day-to-day emotion and symptom trajectories of different psychiatric patients that took part in an experience sampling study before, during, and after the start of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and associated lockdown measures in Belgium. Piecewise regression models show that not all patients’ psychological well-being is affected to a similar degree. As such, we argue that emphasizing human resilience, also among the more vulnerable in society, may be opportune in these unsettling times.https://www.psychologicabelgica.com/articles/1028covid-19mental health crisisresilienceexperience sampling methods, psychological wellbeing |
| spellingShingle | Egon Dejonckheere Marlies Houben Evelien Schat Eva Ceulemans Peter Kuppens The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium Psychologica Belgica covid-19 mental health crisis resilience experience sampling methods, psychological wellbeing |
| title | The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium |
| title_full | The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium |
| title_fullStr | The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium |
| title_short | The Short-Term Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Psychiatric Patients: Evidence for Differential Emotion and Symptom Trajectories in Belgium |
| title_sort | short term psychological impact of the covid 19 pandemic in psychiatric patients evidence for differential emotion and symptom trajectories in belgium |
| topic | covid-19 mental health crisis resilience experience sampling methods, psychological wellbeing |
| url | https://www.psychologicabelgica.com/articles/1028 |
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