Psychiatrists: “With DIY in the pandemic, anxiety rises”

Tampons at home, rush to improper care and self-imposed lockdown: watch out for pandemic “Do-it-yourself”, which led to a increased anxiety disorders among Italians, and people with mental illness are more at risk. The alert comes from psychiatrists and experts on the occasion of the international web forum “Pills of Psyichiatry and Neurology – Psychiatric and Neurological issues in the Covid-19 era”, organized by the University of Brescia and the Menarini International Foundation.

Between do-it-yourself tampons, do-it-yourself diagnosis and even do-it-yourself treatments, Italians are in fact experiencing a new “self-managed” phase of the pandemic.

The effect of the new wave on the collective attitude

«Quick tests to be done at home and in pharmacies and often self-imposed escapes from offices, beyond official protocols, fuel anxiety rather than reduce it. In search of a new balance with the virus, we have experienced alternating phases – says Emilio Sacchetti, scientific coordinator of the web forum and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Brescia -. Especially in the past few weeks, we have gone from the triumphalistic idea of ​​herd immunity and healing to discouragement, when we have been struck by this. new wave. Now, in the awareness of having to accept a prolonged coexistence with the virus managed in an increasingly individual way, the collective attitude is changing “. On the one hand, he stresses, “a more mature and less frightened vision is emerging, which recognizes the effectiveness of science and observes how the continuous records of contagions from Omicron seem to cause milder symptoms thanks to the help of vaccines and the booster dose. . On the other hand, the burden of anxiety associated with the awareness that science has intrinsic limits increases ».

To “overcome the anxiety and malaise that we still feel, adherence to the vaccination campaign and the use of prevention measures must go hand in hand – he says – with a push towards socialization and a new normality, to stem the devastating effects on the psyche of citizens “.

Covid and mental health: a double thread

The experts also reiterated that about 70% of the population wishes to be vaccinated, 20-25% express doubts and the remaining 5-10% are in the irreducibly opposed range. The administration of vaccination to about 90% of the population, Sacchetti notes, “indicates that the share of hesitants is now reduced to the bone, so other tools should be put in place to encourage diehards to get vaccinated, such as empathic and emotional communication” . Psychiatrists also point out how Covid and mental health are closely linkedPast mental health problems such as anxiety and depression can increase the risk of Sars-CoV-2 infection by an average of 65%, according to a recent study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. Conversely, a healthy person who becomes ill with Covid has a significantly higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in the 14-90 days following the infection, compared to someone who gets sick with the flu or other infections.

Although the pandemic has therefore increased the need for psychiatric assistance, “health resources increasingly scarce and all aimed at addressing the Covid emergency have also led to the cutting of many activities of the services dedicated to mental health. A paradox – concludes Sacchetti – that must be reduced to guarantee the population at least the essential levels of psychiatric care ».

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