Special Issue "OCD and Trauma-Related Disorders in the Pandemic: Bio-Psychosocial Vulnerability Factors and Intervention Strategies"

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 June 2023 | Viewed by 1368

Special Issue Editors

Department of Medical Sciences, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
Interests: obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders; post-traumatic stress disorders
Dr. Andrea Fagiolini
E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Medicine and Clinical Department of Mental Health, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
Interests: pharmacological treatment of major depressive; bipolar and psychotic disorders
Dr. Fabio Ferretti
E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Medical Sciences, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
Interests: trauma and stress-related disorders; criminology
Department of Personality, Assessment, Psychological Treatment Faculty of Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
Interests: obsessive-compulsive disorder and related disorders in children and adolescents; borderline personality disorder
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Interests: long-term consequences of childhood trauma and adversities; role of metacognition in psychopathology; the formation of maladaptive metacognitive beliefs
Department of Molecular Medicine and Clinical Department of Mental Health, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
Interests: pharmacological treatment of mood disorders; diagnosis and course of bipolar disorder; personalized treatment of psychiatric diseases; treatment of medical comorbidities in pa-tients with severe mental illness

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic is a severe stressful life event that can trigger psychopathological symptoms in clinical populations with psychiatric disorders, but also in individuals or in those with a pre-existing psychiatric vulnerability (e.g., people with lifetime past diagnoses, or relatives of psychiatric patients). This is particularly relevant to the development, exacerbation, or relapse of obsessive–compulsive symptoms such as pathological contamination fears in individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorders (OCD), or trauma-related conditions such as adjustment disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). Several stress factors related to the pandemic can put these people at risk of high levels of stress, impairment, and poor quality of life: family, economic, work-related issues (e.g., having lost one’s job or a loved one, having been infected), the interruption of social activities, movement restrictions, strict hygiene habits, and the increased personal responsibility for contagion.

To date, the effects of the pandemic on people with OCD or trauma-related disorders have not been sufficiently examined in the literature. The impact of the pandemic on the onset of obsessive–compulsive or traumatic symptoms in the community, but also the development of intervention strategies for such conditions, represent other research areas that deserve more scientific attention. Further studies focusing on these aspects may be of interest to a broad audience of stakeholders, including mental health practitioners and researchers, policymakers, social workers, patients, and their families.

The present Special Issue of Brain Sciences aims to collect international papers (research articles, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, case studies) focused on bio-psychosocial vulnerability factors and/or intervention strategies for OCD and trauma-related conditions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Special Issue will include international papers concerning the following aspects:

  • Biological or psychosocial vulnerability or protective factors for the onset, exacerbation, or relapse of OCD or trauma-related symptoms during the pandemic in psychiatric populations, in the general population, in undergraduates, or in specific community populations (e.g., youth, older people, healthcare professionals).
  • Changes in symptoms during the pandemic (changes in obsessions and compulsions, both in terms of their severity and in the onset of new ones; changes in the severity of symptoms of people with previous traumas and onset of new ones associated with the pandemic; changes in other clinical symptoms, both in the clinical population and in the community in anxiety, depression, sleep, and other key variables).
  • Quality of life, family/couple or academic/work functioning of patients with OCD or trauma-related symptoms (or their relatives) during the pandemic.
  • Biological or psychosocial treatment or early intervention strategies, predictors or moderators of outcomes, mechanisms of change of OCD or trauma-related symptoms during the pandemic.
  • Cross-cultural comparisons on OCD or trauma-related conditions during the pandemic.

Dr. Andrea Pozza
Dr. Andrea Fagiolini
Dr. Fabio Ferretti
Prof. Dr. Ana Isabel Rosa Alcázar
Dr. Małgorzata Dragan
Dr. Alessandro Cuomo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • obsessive–compulsive disorder
  • obsessions
  • rituals
  • trauma
  • post-traumatic stress disorder
  • pandemic
  • COVID-19
  • stress
  • anxiety
  • adjustment disorders

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Brief Report
Neuroticism and Conscientiousness Moderate the Effect of Oral Medication Beliefs on Adherence of People with Mental Illness during the Pandemic
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(10), 1315; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12101315 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1007
Abstract
Background. After the declaration of the pandemic status in several countries, the continuity of face-to-face visits in psychiatric facilities has been delayed or even interrupted to reduce viral spread. Little is known about the personality factors associated with medication beliefs and adherence amongst [...] Read more.
Background. After the declaration of the pandemic status in several countries, the continuity of face-to-face visits in psychiatric facilities has been delayed or even interrupted to reduce viral spread. Little is known about the personality factors associated with medication beliefs and adherence amongst individuals with mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief report describes a preliminary naturalistic longitudinal study that explored whether the Big Five personality traits prospectively moderate the effects of medication beliefs on changes in adherence during the pandemic for a group of outpatients with psychosis or bipolar disorder. Methods. Thirteen outpatients undergoing routine face-to-face follow-up assessments during the pandemic were included (41 observations overall) and completed the Revised Italian Version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire, the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale—8-item and the Beck Depression Inventory—II. Results. Participants had stronger concerns about their psychiatric medications rather than beliefs about their necessity, and adherence to medications was generally low. Participants who had more necessity beliefs than concerns had better adherence to medications. People scoring higher in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism traits and more concerned about the medication side effects had poorer adherence. Conclusions. These preliminary data suggest the importance of a careful assessment of the adherence to medications amongst people with psychosis/bipolar disorder during the pandemic. Interventions aimed to improve adherence might focus on patients’ medication beliefs and their Conscientiousness and Neuroticism personality traits. Full article
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