From lockdown to Liberation: How inflexible thinking, obsessive-compulsive and affective symptoms shape pandemic adjustment

IF 3.7 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of psychiatric research Pub Date : 2025-05-09 DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.05.003

Aaron T. Clarke , Naomi A. Fineberg , Luca Pellegrini , Rodolfo Leuzzi , Keith R. Laws

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted daily life, and the transition to post-pandemic living presented additional psychological challenges. Previous research shows that individuals with obsessive-compulsive traits and pre-existing mental health histories were vulnerable to adjustment difficulties, which appear to be mediated by depression, anxiety, and stress.

Aims

This study examined the relationship between post-pandemic adjustment and mental health variables in a population-based cohort during the final lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, tracking outcomes over six months to assess causality. The study was pre-registered on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/v4c28).

Method

A cohort of 343 UK adults was assessed online at baseline, three, and six months. Self-report measures included the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), Compulsive Personality Assessment Scale (CPAS), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), Post-Pandemic Adjustment Scale (PPAS) and COVID-19 Safety Behaviour Scale. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (CST: at baseline) and the Intradimensional-Extradimensional Set-Shifting Task (IDED: at 3 months).

Results

Approximately 28 % of participants were identified as poor adjusters. Mediation analysis revealed that obsessive-compulsive symptoms, compulsive personality traits, and a history of mental health disorders predicted post-pandemic adjustment difficulties indirectly via depression, anxiety, and COVID-19 safety behaviours. While we found no evidence that adjustment was linked to cognitive flexibility on the WCST, exploratory analyses showed that poorer adjustment was linked to reversal learning issues on the IDED task.

Conclusion

This study replicated our prior findings, identifying obsessive-compulsive symptoms and traits, mental health histories, and cognitive inflexibility as key risk factors for poor post-pandemic adjustment. Moreover, depression, anxiety, and stress mediated these difficulties, suggesting potential markers for identifying at-risk individuals and guiding interventions for future public health crises.

查看原文本刊更多论文

从封锁到解放：僵化的思维、强迫性和情感症状如何影响流行病的调整

COVID-19大流行严重扰乱了日常生活，向大流行后生活的过渡带来了额外的心理挑战。先前的研究表明，具有强迫症特征和先前存在的精神健康史的个体容易受到适应困难的影响，这似乎是由抑郁、焦虑和压力介导的。本研究在最终解除COVID-19限制期间，在以人群为基础的队列中，研究了大流行后调整与心理健康变量之间的关系，跟踪了6个月的结果，以评估因果关系。该研究已在开放科学框架（https://osf.io/v4c28）上预先注册。方法对343名英国成年人进行基线、3个月和6个月的在线评估。自我报告测量包括强迫症清单修订（OCI-R）、强迫人格评估量表（CPAS）、抑郁、焦虑和压力量表-21 （DASS-21）、大流行后调整量表（PPAS）和COVID-19安全行为量表。认知灵活性评估使用威斯康星卡片分类测试（CST：基线）和内维-外维集合转移任务（ids: 3个月）。结果约28%的参与者被确定为不良调整者。中介分析显示，强迫症症状、强迫性人格特征和精神健康障碍史通过抑郁、焦虑和COVID-19安全行为间接预测大流行后的适应困难。虽然我们没有发现任何证据表明调整与WCST的认知灵活性有关，但探索性分析表明，较差的调整与ide任务中的反转学习问题有关。结论：本研究重复了我们之前的研究结果，确定了强迫症症状和特征、精神健康史和认知不灵活性是大流行后适应不良的关键危险因素。此外，抑郁、焦虑和压力介导了这些困难，提示了识别高危个体和指导未来公共卫生危机干预的潜在标记。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of psychiatric research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.10%

发文量

622

审稿时长

130 days

期刊介绍： Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research: (1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors; (2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology; (3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;