Major Stress-Related Symptoms During the Lockdown: A Study by the Italian Society of Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

The clinical effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are now the subject of numerous studies worldwide. But what are the effects of the quarantine imposed by the states that implemented the measures of lockdown? The present research aims to explore, in a preliminary way, the major stress-related symptoms during the lockdown, due to Covid-19, in the Italian population. Subjects were asked to fill out a survey, that traced a line identifying the most relevant psychophysiological symptoms that took into account factors such as perceived stress, body perception, perceived pain, quality of sleep, perceptive variations (i.e., olfactory, gustatory, visual, acoustic, and haptic perception). A network approach formulating a hypothesis-generating exploratory analysis was adopted. Main results of the network analysis showed that the beliefs of having had the Covid-19 was related to individual variables (i.e., gender, working in presence, sleep quality, anxiety symptoms), while the familiarity of Covid-19 disease was related to contextual factors (e.g., number of recorded cases in the Region, working in presence). The self-perception of olfactory and perceptive alterations highlighted a great sensorial cross-modality, additionally, the olfactory impairment was related to the belief of having had the Covid-19. Compared to general network data, BAI, perceived stress, anxiety and chronic pain were in relation to daily sleep disturbance. Main study's results show how the management of the Covid-19 stressful representation, in its cognitive aspects, can modulate the psychophysiological responses.

Keywords: Covid-19; anxiety symptoms; lockdown; olfactory perception; pain; sleep habits; stress.

Figure 1

Green lines indicate positive associations. Red lines indicate negative associations. Values are regularized partial correlations. The nodes indicate the variables as follow: 1 Sleep_F1; 2 Sleep_F2; 3 Sleep_F3; 4 PSS (Perceived Stress Scale); 5 BPQ (Body Perception Questionnaire); 6 BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory); 7 CD (Chronic Disease); 8 NSW (Not Smart Working); 9 Covid B (Covid Believe); 10 Covid F (Covid Familiarity); 11 Covid Death in the Region of the responder; 12 Covid Tot cases in the Region of the responder; 13 Gender; 14 CPG (Chronic Pain General Score).

Figure 2

Green lines indicate positive associations. Red lines indicate negative associations. Edges represent the direct association between two edges. The nodes indicate the variables as follow: 1 Eating Habits (EH); 2 Vision; 3 Hearing; 4 Touch; 5 Olfaction; 6 Taste; 7 Covid F; 8 NSW; 9 Covid B; 10 Gender.