A journey through the traumatic effects and psychopathological consequences of the COVID19 pandemic in the Italian population.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the worldwide population in the last year. To cope with the crisis, many countries have taken urgent measures to safeguard the people’s health (i.e., quarantines, social distancing, border closure) that have severely affected mental health and well-being in the general population. Several researchers highlighted associations with post-traumatic symptomatology, but no study investigated the role of psychological aspects in this relation. This study aimed to assess the direct and mediated consequences of some aspects of the COVID-19 experiences on COVID-19 related PTSD,considering the role of several psychological dimensions (i.e., anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, psychological well-being, and psychopathological symptomatology). Two thousand two hundred and nineteen-one Italian respondents completed an online survey focused on the experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Different questionnaires, assessing sleep quality, anxiety, depression, psychological well-being, general psychopathology, were administered. A mediation analysis (path analysis) was adopted. A direct effect of the dimensions ascribable to the pandemic (COVID-19 diagnosis, the fear of the contagion, and the diagnosis of COVID-19 in loved ones) was highlighted on PTSD symptoms. Moreover, a total indirect effect emerged considering COVID-19 diagnosis and fear of contagion. The fear of contagion was significantly mediated by psychological well-being, sleep disturbance, psychopathological symptomatology, and anxiety. The effect of COVID-19 diagnosis was significantly mediated by general psychological well-being and psychopathological symptomatology. Moreover, sleep disturbance was reported as a possible mediator of the relationship between the diagnosis of COVID-19 in loved ones and PTSD symptomatology. These findings should be adopted as a starting point to develop psychological interventions to minimize the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.