Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 28;19(11):6596. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116596.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the social distancing practices that followed, have been associated with increased prevalence of emotional disorders. However, not all individuals affected by COVID-19-related social distancing experienced elevations in emotional disorder symptoms. Understanding this phenomenon is of crucial public health significance given the burden of emotional disorders on individuals and systems. In this narrative review, we consider the differential impact of COVID-19-related social distancing on mental health outcomes from a transdiagnostic perspective. We argue that individuals high in negative affect and aversive reactivity to emotion, that is, neuroticism, and who respond to such emotional experiences with emotion-motivated avoidant coping, are most likely to experience emotional disorders in the context of COVID-19 social distancing. We acknowledge the pro-social and adaptive function of some types of avoidance during the pandemic, which may have initially buffered against negative mental health outcomes. Implications of this conceptualization for treatment of emotional disorders in the present sociocultural context are discussed.
新冠疫情及其后续的社交距离措施与情绪障碍的普遍发生率增加有关。然而，并非所有受到与新冠相关的社交距离影响的个体都经历了情绪障碍症状的升高。鉴于情绪障碍给个人和系统带来的负担，了解这一现象具有至关重要的公共卫生意义。在这篇叙述性综述中，我们从跨诊断的角度考虑了与新冠相关的社交距离对心理健康结果的不同影响。我们认为，那些情绪消极、对情绪反应消极、即神经质的个体，以及那些对这种情绪体验做出情绪驱动性回避应对的个体，最有可能在新冠社交距离的背景下出现情绪障碍。我们承认，在大流行期间，某些类型的回避具有亲社会和适应性的功能，这可能最初缓冲了负面心理健康结果。本文讨论了这种概念化对当前社会文化背景下情绪障碍治疗的意义。
