Florence, 29 January 2021 – The numbers are impressive: half of the Covid infected manifest psychiatric disorders with an incidence of 42% anxiety or insomnia, 28% of post-traumatic stress disorder and 20% of obsessive-compulsive disorder; the 32% develop depressive symptoms, an incidence up to 5 times higher than in the general population. It is therefore estimated that in the coming months they may emerge up to 800 thousand new cases of depression. But the discomfort also affects the relatives of the deceased: at least 10 thousand will experience depression within a year, while at least 150,000 new cases of depression due to unemployment will be at least 150,000.
To put it in black and white is there Italian Society of NeuroPsicoPharmacology, according to which “the situation could even get worse because” health, emotional and social fragility multiply the consequences on psychophysical well-being “.
“What we have recorded so far – says Prof. Claudio Mencacci, Sinpf co-president – is that about 60% of the Italian population had mental illnesses which lasted more than a week. But what we are spectators of today is only part of the phenomenon.
The tip of the iceberg: there is in fact a karst river that still flows underground which is of a discomfort and a very strong psychic suffering, mainly determined by the solitude in the two groups most at risk, namely that of adolescence and that of the elderly “.
“We are facing one sindemia – adds Mencacci – or rather to a set of pandemic pathologies, not only health, but also economic, social, psychological, linked to models of life, to the enjoyment of culture, of human relationships. The psychological impact determined, above all, by social distancing, loneliness, the level of complicated bereavement for people who have had a loss, but also the possibility of impoverishment and unemployment, are all factors that heavily affect mental health “
According to Mencacci, “unlike in the past we weren’t trained to adapt to such a radical change. In recent months everything has changed, and the world will no longer be what it was before. So mental distress will be inevitable, because our brain does not like uncertainty, and instead this situation is characterized by a profound uncertainty, which goes beyond the uncertainties in some way expected, and therefore manageable, to which we can also adapt. The covid, and what has ensued, has put us in the condition of volatility. something never experienced in the past with this force. In fact we are an outdoor planetary laboratory because we have experienced the quarantine, isolation, distancing: all things that had not happened in the past, neither with the Asian nor the Spanish, to remain within examples that are often on the medical-health level “.
Fortunately, there are also positives. “We have the help of science – says Mencacci – which has not stopped. Perhaps, in the recent past, it had given us the illusion of being able to definitively defeat death and disease, and obviously it is not so; but in a year have made an incredible leap as we see on the issue of vaccines. “
How can we not be overwhelmed by despair? “You have to ilearn to tolerate frustration – says Mencacci-. The big part of the disappointment of these months is having thought that everything could end quickly, and we have seen that it did not. Therefore thethe first thing is adaptability and flexibility. It is also important to keep your pace, not to close yourself at home. We must go out, obviously in possible conditions, but not give up doing it. In fact, social isolation generates a strong desire similar to that of hunger, which if not satisfied produces enormous frustration. Here we need to keep as much as possible healthy lifestyles. Give yourself a rhythm, give yourself a time, exercise, maintaining the ability to contact others, even if limited from a physical point of view. Finally, we must experience a new literacy of social relations, through the mediation of technologies. And of course I say this above all for young adults or elderly people, who must familiarize themselves with a new version of relations with reality “.
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