Anxiety and depression are among the heaviest consequences of the pandemic. Over 40% of Italians reported a worsening of anxious and depressive symptoms during last year's national lockdown, with a reduction in quality of life more than 60% of subjects and repercussions on the sleep-wake rhythm more than 30%, as reported by the Ansa Agency.
This is what emerges from the first study conducted in Italy on a representative sample of the adult population, the result of the work of psychiatrists, public health experts and biostatisticians from theHigher Institute of Health, from the University of Genoa and Pavia, of theMario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research, presented last June 21st.
The study, published in Journal of Affective Disorders, is based "on a representative sample of over 6,000 subjects that we are following over time - specifies Silvano Gallus, researcher at Mario Negri and coordinator of the research consortium - which will allow us to analyze how the lifestyles and mental health of Italians have changed and are changing over time, following the restrictions imposed to control the Covid-19 pandemic".
Women are more vulnerable: approximately half of Italian women reported a worsening of their mental well-being with a risk of worsening depression and symptoms of impaired sleep quality, respectively 32% and 63% greater than men.
"The data in our possession are very solid and speak clearly - comments Andrea Amerio, psychiatric researcher at the University of Genoa and first author of the study - The use of psychotropic drugs, mainly anxiolytics, increased by 20% compared to the pre-lockdown period and all mental health indicators have worsened."
"The analyzes already conducted - states Roberta Pacifici of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità - have measured how the distribution of some behavioral risk factors such as smoking, gambling and other addictions has been influenced by the emergency context that we have experienced and how it is essential to intervene with targeted primary prevention actions".
