@article{ref1,
title="Students' mental health problems before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdown in  Italy",
journal="Journal of psychiatric research",
year="2020",
author="Meda, Nicola and Pardini, Susanna and Slongo, Irene and Bodini, Luca and Zordan, Mauro Agostino and Rigobello, Paolo and Visioli, Francesco and Novara, Caterina",
volume="134",
number="",
pages="69-77",
abstract="The lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic may have exacerbated mental health  problems. To what degree mental health may be affected by social isolation is still  poorly known. We collected prospective data on students' mental health in two  instances: (i) in October and December 2019, and (ii) 6 months later, in April 2020  amidst the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy and in mid-May/June 2020, after the lifting of  lockdown. A total of 358 Italian students aged 18-30 completed socio-demographic  questionnaires and the Beck Depression Inventory - 2 (BDI-2), the Beck Anxiety  Inventory (BAI), the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory - Revised (OCI-R), the Eating  Habits Questionnaire (EHQ), and the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3). We applied  multiple regression models to evince any changes in the aforementioned questionnaire  scores during and after lockdown with respect to the scores before lockdown. Students reported on average worse depressive symptoms during lockdown than 6 months  before isolation (median increase in the BDI-2 score +2; IQR = -3, 6;  β = 0.09 ± 0.03, p = 0.005), with students without any established diagnosis of  psychopathology being affected the most. The regression models predict that 86.2%  (IQR = 67.9, 91.4%) of students would not experience a clinically significant  worsening of symptoms, while approximately 6% of our target population could develop  more severe depressive symptoms. This study supports the view that depressive  symptomatology may be aggravated during lockdown, but also highlights that after the  lifting of lockdown any changes quickly vanished, as the BDI-2 scores were not  different from the ones reported before lockdown.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-3956",
doi="10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.045",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.045"
}