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The psychological impact of COVID-19 and lockdown measures among a sample of italian patients with eating disorders: A longitudinal study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

V. Nisticò ,
S. Bertelli ,
A. Priori ,
O. Gambini  and
B. Demartini
V. Nisticò*
Affiliation:
“aldo Ravelli” Research Center For Neurotechnology And Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
S. Bertelli
Affiliation:
Unità Di Psichiatria Ii, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy Nutrimente Onlus, Nutrimente Onlus, Milan, Italy
A. Priori
Affiliation:
“aldo Ravelli” Research Center For Neurotechnology And Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Iii Clinica Neurologica, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy
O. Gambini
Affiliation:
“aldo Ravelli” Research Center For Neurotechnology And Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Unità Di Psichiatria Ii, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy
B. Demartini
Affiliation:
“aldo Ravelli” Research Center For Neurotechnology And Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy Unità Di Psichiatria Ii, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown greatly impact on mental health, especially on individuals with pre-existing psychiatric conditions.

Objectives

To explore the prevalence of specific psychiatric symptoms across a sample of patients with Eating Disorder (ED), compared to a group of healthy controls (HC), during the lockdown period in Italy, and to assess whether patients’ symptoms improved, persisted or worsened with the easing of the lockdown measures.

Methods

Study 1: 59 ED patients and 43 HC were recruited and completed, at the beginning of May 2020(t0), an online survey including: the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale – 21 items (DASS-21), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and few ad-hoc questions extracted from the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Study 2: 40 ED patients from Study 1 completed the same survey two months after t0 (t1).

Results

Study 1: ED patients scored significantly higher than HC at the DASS-21 (Total Score and subscales), the IES-R (Total Score and subscales) and the PSS. Moreover, they showed higher distress specifically related to food and their body. Study 2: at t1, levels of stress, anxiety and depression were not different than at t0, but symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) improved, together with patients’ reported level of psychological wellbeing and specific ED symptomatology.

Conclusions

During lockdown, ED patients presented significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD-related symptoms, and ED-related symptoms than HC. With the easing of lockdown, PTSD-related and ED-related symptoms ameliorated, but high levels of stress, anxiety and depression persisted.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

AnxietyDepressionCOVID-19eating disorders
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S93
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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