Preliminary research highlights the role of emotion dysregulation in predicting early signs of distress and anxiety related to Covid-19 14. Moreover, the outcomes also demonstrated that increased consumption of media and social media were reported to fuel the experience of anxiety 19. Here, individuals were particularly worried about loved ones and one’s own health in the context of the pandemic, in addition to worries about population compliance (or disregard) with government guidelines. This included accentuation of pre-existing anxiety, first onset generalized anxiety, existential anxiety, and health-related anxiety. In each of the subpopulations, anxiety emerged to be the most prominent concern. Cowan 19 examined the concerns of people with lived experiences of mental health and their supporters, health or social care practitioners and researchers, and the UK general public in March 2020, when the country entered a formal lockdown. Specifically, in a large sample of the Spanish general population, Fullana and colleagues 3 found reduced anxiety to be associated with a healthy and balanced diet, and avoiding news related to the current pandemic. More recent work provides suggestive support for a number of basic psychosocial coping behaviours which may attenuate Covid-19 anxiety 3. However, these behaviours are known to also increase the experience of fear and anxiety related to health and contamination 15, 16, 17, 18. For example, by activating appropriate safety behaviours (e.g., social distancing, hand sanitising) which may reduce contamination. Whereas experience of fear may be considered an adaptive emotion that serves to mobilize energy to deal with potential threat 15. In the context of Covid-19, the extent of trait resilience and ability to deploy adequate emotion regulation strategies appear to be related to a greater ability to cope with emerging trauma and psychiatric symptoms 12, 13, 14. Not all people are affected by emotional distress caused by traumatic incidents such as the current Covid-19 pandemic 11. Similar increases in mental health difficulties have been evidenced in Columbia 5, Iran 7, Ireland 8, the United States 9 and United Kingdom 10. Likewise, Huang and Zhao 4 determined an increased prevalence of generalised anxiety, symptoms of depression, and sleep disturbances in the Chinese general population. 10% in 2018) was reported by Sciensano 6. 11% in 2018) and increase of depressive symptoms (16% in April 2020 vs. For example, a twofold increase in the prevalence of anxiety (20% in April 2020 vs. Indeed, recent work has observed an increase in the population prevalence of common mental health difficulties in a number of countries 4, 5, 6, 7. Consequently, the onset of psychiatric difficulties may be promoted in those with no history of such difficulties, whilst also serving to accentuate the severity of pre-existing difficulties 2, 3. ![]() ![]() Certainly, these factors combined with the prolonged experience of being in a pandemic, may disturb cognitive (i.e., cognitive reappraisal) and behavioural (i.e., expressive suppression) processes that maintain stable functioning of the emotion regulation system 13, 14. ![]() To prevent the spread of Covid-19, governments worldwide typically enforce a number of health-related measures (i.e., promoting social distancing and face masks, quarantining, applying curfews, and social lockdowns), which may infringe personal freedoms and create financial uncertainty 1. Whilst most individuals with Covid-19 display mild to moderate symptoms, almost 15% present severe pneumonia and approximately 5% progress to multiple organ failure, hypoxia and acute respiratory distress syndrome 1, 2. The recent outbreak of a novel respiratory coronavirus disease (termed Covid-19 as from here on) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global pandemic.
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