Initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic on real-life well-being, social contact and roaming behavior in patients with schizophrenia, major depression and healthy controls: A longitudinal ecological momentary assessment study

Anastasia Benedyk; Alexander Moldavski; Markus Reichert; Iris Reinhard; Sarah Lohr; Kristina Schwarz; Oksana Berhe; Anna Höflich; Sven Lautenbach; Christoph von der Goltz; Ulrich Ebner-Priemer; Alexander Zipf; Heike Tost; Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg

doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2023.01.008

Initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic on real-life well-being, social contact and roaming behavior in patients with schizophrenia, major depression and healthy controls: A longitudinal ecological momentary assessment study

Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2023 Apr:69:79-83. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2023.01.008. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, J5, Mannheim, Baden-Wuerttemberg 68159, Germany.
² Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, J5, Mannheim, Baden-Wuerttemberg 68159, Germany; Department of eHealth and Sports Analytics, Faculty of Sport Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; Mental mHealth Lab, Department of Applied Psychology, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
³ Department of Biostatistics, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
⁴ Department of GIScience, Institute of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
⁵ Department of GIScience, Institute of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology) at Heidelberg University, Germany.
⁶ H.Lundbeck A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, J5, Mannheim, Baden-Wuerttemberg 68159, Germany; Mental mHealth Lab, Department of Applied Psychology, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, J5, Mannheim, Baden-Wuerttemberg 68159, Germany. Electronic address: Meyer-Lindenberg@zi-mannheim.de.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted people's daily lives. However, it remains unknown how the pandemic situation affects daily-life experiences of individuals with preexisting severe mental illnesses (SMI). In this real-life longitudinal study, the acute onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany did not cause the already low everyday well-being of patients with schizophrenia (SZ) or major depression (MDD) to decrease further. On the contrary, healthy participants' well-being, anxiety, social isolation, and mobility worsened, especially in healthy individuals at risk for mental disorder, but remained above the levels seen in patients. Despite being stressful for healthy individuals at risk for mental disorder, the COVID-19 pandemic had little additional influence on daily-life well-being in psychiatric patients with SMI. This highlights the need for preventive action and targeted support of this vulnerable population.

Keywords: COVID-19; Depression; Mental health risk; Pandemic; Schizophrenia; Vulnerable population.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anxiety
COVID-19*
Depression / epidemiology
Depressive Disorder, Major* / epidemiology
Ecological Momentary Assessment
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Pandemics
Schizophrenia* / epidemiology