Psychological consequences of COVID-19
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Psychological consequences of COVID-19 More than two and a half million people have already died as a result of COVID-19. There is now considerable evidence in epidimiological studies that the prevalence of mental health problems has substantially increased after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Qiu et al., 2021; Schafer et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2020). This does not only apply to adults but to adolescents as well (Breaux et al., 2021). The pandemic has had a direct impact on anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorder and violence (ClementeSuárez et al., 2021). In addition, one study has shown that paranoia and conspiratorial thinking are associated with COVID-19 (Larsen et al., 2021). Research has found an association between COVID-19 related conditions and the perpetration or experience of intimate partner violence during the earliest stage of the pandemic in a sample of adults in the United States (Davis et al., 2021). Respondents who reported testing positive to COVID-19 were two to three times more likely to experience or perpetrate interpersonal violence against an intimate partner. Also in healthcare workers with COVID-19 patients mental health risks have increased (Johnson et al., 2020; Mosheva et al., 2020; Salazar de Pablo et al., 2020; Sheraton et al., 2020). In a study amongst 350 healthcare workers in the US results revealed persisting mental health consequennces of the COVID-19 pandemic among health care workers: Anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, PTSD, and moral injury remained high over 90 days between September and December 2020 (Amsalem et al., 2021).In this Special Issue a number of studies are published which investigate consequences of COVID19 on mental health issues. In a large study on adult participants from the general population across 21 countries worldwide was found that fears of offering compassion to oneself and others, and of receiving compassion from others significantly predicted poorer mental health and social safeness during the COVID-19 pandemic (Matos et al., 2021).