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?:abstract
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Background: Increased mental health problems as a reaction to stressful life events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are common. Critically, successful adaptation helps reduce such symptoms to baseline, preventing long-term psychiatric disorders. It is thus important to understand whether and which psychiatric symptoms only show transient elevations, and which persist long-term and become chronically heightened. At particular risk for the latter trajectory are disorders with symptoms directly affected by the pandemic, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Methods: In this longitudinal large-scale study (N=416), we assessed how obsessive-compulsive (OC), anxiety, and depression symptoms changed throughout the course of the first pandemic wave in a sample of the general UK public. We further examined how these symptoms affected pandemic-related information seeking and adherence to governmental guidelines. Findings: All psychiatric domains were initially elevated, but showed distinct adaptation patterns. Depression scores decreased during the first pandemic wave, however, OC symptoms further increased, even after the end of lockdown. These OC symptoms were directly linked to Covid-related information seeking which gave rise to higher adherence to government guidelines. Interpretation: The rise and persistence of OC symptoms, despite the ease of Covid-19 restrictions, shows that OCD is disproportionally and chronically affected by the pandemic. This is particularly worrying with regards to the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public mental health and indicates that patients with OCD may require particular treatment efforts.
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