Armon Daphna Bardin, Fine Naomi B, Seligman Zivya, Ginzburg Karni, Ben-Zion Ziv
Lotem Center for Treatment of Sexual Trauma, Department of Psychiatry, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
J Affect Disord Rep. 2021 Dec;6:100252. doi: 10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100252. Epub 2021 Oct 4.
Sexual assault survivors are a vulnerable sub-population that might be severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet received little research attention during this global crisis. Higher levels of resilience are generally associated with lower symptoms of depression and anxiety and are thus considered as promoting adjustment to stress. Here, we tested the associations between resilience, depression, and anxiety symptoms among sexual assault survivors during the COVID-19 epidemic. Pandemic-induced changes in mood and anxiety were also examined as potential mediators of the relations between resilience and clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety.
At the pandemic onset, 83 sexual assault survivors (66 females, average age=37.68±10.90 years) undergoing treatment at a specialized psychiatric outpatient clinic completed a survey aimed at identifying patients in distress during the lockdown. The survey included a battery of questionnaires assessing resilience, pandemic-induced changes in mood and anxiety, and clinical symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety.
Resilience scores were significantly negatively correlated with both depression and generalized anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, pandemic-induced changes in mood and anxiety significantly mediated these effects.
Due to the cross-sectional study design, a temporal relationship between pandemic induced changes (mood and anxiety) and clinical symptoms (depression and generalized anxiety) could not be determined.
Our findings highlight the need to develop interventions for reducing situational changes in mood and anxiety during periods of acute stress, while increasing resilience factors, in order to decrease the burden of stress on sexual assault survivors' mental health during the pandemic and beyond.
性侵犯幸存者是一个易受伤害的亚群体，可能受到新冠疫情的严重影响，但在这场全球危机期间很少受到研究关注。较高水平的心理韧性通常与较低的抑郁和焦虑症状相关，因此被认为有助于应对压力。在此，我们测试了新冠疫情期间性侵犯幸存者的心理韧性、抑郁和焦虑症状之间的关联。疫情引发的情绪和焦虑变化也被视为心理韧性与抑郁和焦虑临床症状之间关系的潜在中介因素。
在疫情开始时，83名在专门的精神科门诊接受治疗的性侵犯幸存者（66名女性，平均年龄=37.68±10.90岁）完成了一项旨在识别封锁期间处于困境中的患者的调查。该调查包括一系列问卷，评估心理韧性、疫情引发的情绪和焦虑变化，以及抑郁和广泛性焦虑的临床症状。
心理韧性得分与抑郁和广泛性焦虑症状均显著负相关。此外，疫情引发的情绪和焦虑变化显著介导了这些影响。
由于采用横断面研究设计，无法确定疫情引发的变化（情绪和焦虑）与临床症状（抑郁和广泛性焦虑）之间的时间关系。
我们的研究结果强调，有必要制定干预措施，以减少急性应激期间情绪和焦虑的情境变化，同时增加心理韧性因素，从而减轻疫情期间及之后性侵犯幸存者心理健康的压力负担。
