New research has discovered that traumatic stress associated with the coronavirus may be used to predict post-traumatic stress disorder. The researchers found a link between PTSD and COVID traumatic stress, noting that it was stronger in people who had repeatedly experienced past trauma.
In their report, the researchers noted that their findings were true across almost all racial groups, excluding Asian Americans.
The lead author of the study, Professor Jeff Ashby, has specialized in counseling and psychological services. He stated that despite many individuals being insulated from economic hardship and deaths associated with the pandemic, there was a universal experience of social isolation, fear and concern for other people. He explained that the researchers had found that the experience of the coronavirus was a traumatic stress, noting that it was a traumatic experience in itself and wasn’t just triggering earlier trauma.
For their study, the researchers administered a survey to more than 700 individuals that assessed the possible interaction of ethnicity/race, cumulative trauma and coronavirus traumatic stress in the prediction of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. They made use of a COVID-19 Traumatic Stress Scale that was recently validated to measure the impact of the pandemic as related to the fear or threat of infection and subsequent death.
On a general scale, the study revealed a significant and positive link between symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and COVID traumatic stress, which suggests that the coronavirus pandemic was a unique traumatic stressor. They also discovered a link between high levels of cumulative trauma and symptoms of PTSD in all racial groups, excluding Asian Americans.
Ashby explained that their findings alluded to the existence of a relationship between PTSD and COVID traumatic stress and another between PTSD and cumulative trauma, which meant that individuals with more cumulative trauma were more likely to experience coronavirus as a traumatic stressor.
The researchers found that higher cumulative trauma levels didn’t worsen symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in Asian Americans who experienced COVID traumatic stress, noting that the relationship between symptoms of PTSD, traumatic stress and COVID wasn’t affected by prior trauma in this particular group. The researchers theorize that the increased discrimination and violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic may have reduced the effect of COVID-19 specific trauma on their symptoms of PTSD.
Ashby noted that the group’s results highlighted the importance of assessing subgroups in the community for possible buffering or aggravating effects of COVID stress on mental health outcomes of individuals.
The study’s findings were reported in the “Journal of Community Psychology.”
As cases of PTSD rise, the demand for new remedies, including those being developed by companies such as Mydecine Innovations Group Inc. (NEO: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF), will increase.
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