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Review
. 2022 Jul:154:104121.
doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2022.104121. Epub 2022 May 17.

Stress-related psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Katie A McLaughlin  1 , Maya L Rosen  2 , Steven W Kasparek  2 , Alexandra M Rodman  2
Affiliations
Review

Stress-related psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Katie A McLaughlin et al. Behav Res Ther. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced widespread societal changes that have required ongoing adaptation. Unsurprisingly, stress-related psychopathology has increased during the pandemic, in both children and adults. We review these patterns through the lens of several leading conceptual models of the link between stress and psychopathology. Some of these models focus on characteristics of environmental stressors-including cumulative risk, specific stressor types, and stress sensitization approaches. Understanding the specific aspects of environmental stressors that are most likely to lead to psychopathology can shed light on who may be in most need of clinical intervention. Other models center on factors that can buffer against the onset of psychopathology following stress and the mechanisms through which stressors contribute to emergent psychopathology. These models highlight specific psychosocial processes that may be most usefully targeted by interventions to reduce stress-related psychopathology. We review evidence for each of these stress models in the context of other widescale community-level disruptions, like natural disasters and terrorist attacks, alongside emerging evidence for these stress pathways from the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss clinical implications for developing interventions to reduce stress-related psychopathology during the pandemic, with a focus on brief, digital interventions that may be more accessible than traditional clinical services.

Keywords: Buffers; COVID-19 pandemic; Mechanisms; Psychopathology; Stress.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual models focused on characteristics of environmental stressors—including cumulative risk, specific stressors, and stress sensitization—highlight who may be most in need of intervention as a function of stressful experiences. These include individuals with exposure to a large number of chronic stressors; who have experienced economic adversity, loss, and ongoing daily disruptions; and who have experienced early-life adversity. Stress pathway models centered on stress appraisals, buffers, and mechanisms, in contrast, point to potential targets for interventions to reduce stress-related psychopathology, including appraisal processes, social support, physical activity, sleep, emotion regulation, and reward processing.
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