ArticleCognitive behaviour therapist2020
Death anxiety in the time of COVID-19: theoretical explanations and clinical implications.
Article in Cognitive behaviour therapist, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 313 citations in OpenAlex.
- Death Anxiety Associated With Coronavirus (COVID-19) Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Omega · 2024Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to evaluate the psychological consequences of COVID-19.BMC psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Death Anxiety and Correlates in Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care.Journal of palliative medicine · 2023Trial
- Do People Become More or Less Materialistic during Disasters? The Mediating Roles of Mortality Salience and Gratitude.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Spiritual Well-Being, Perceived Social Support, and Death Anxiety Among Primigravid Women: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evolution of psychiatry- and addiction-related visits in an emergency department before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown: a retrospective study.Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2026Article
- Associations between death anxiety, health literacy, and illness perception in Iranian individuals with heart failure an analytical cross sectional study.Discover mental health · 2026Article
- Unequal burdens: Mental health effects of anti-Asian hate incidents across ecological contexts.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Validation of the Korean version of the death anxiety beliefs and behaviours scale.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Vaccines as a psychological shield: the role of vaccine acceptance in mitigating COVID-19 obsession, burnout, and death anxiety among medical personnel.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The Role of Advance Care Planning on Community Dwelling Adults' Coping Abilities and Death Attitudes: A Sequential Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Beyond the here and now: mood, death attitudes, and diverse future time perspective in late adulthood.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal analysis of psychoactive drug consumption in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2026Article
- Perceptions of Death and Religiosity Among Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Qualitative Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Participant motivators and perceptions of risks and benefits in adult Phase 2/3 COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Trajectory of severe COVID anxiety and predictors for recovery in an 18-month UK cohort.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Prevalence and predictors of stress, anxiety, and depression among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic at a mental referral hospital in Kampala, Uganda.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Fear of progression profiles and their association with quality of life and depression in ischemic stroke survivors: a latent profile analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The relationship between authenticity and death anxiety in individuals with Acute Respiratory Tract Infections.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Patient's psychological experiences during and after recovery from COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological study in Pakistan.BMC psychology · 2025Article
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a surge in anxiety across the globe. Much of the public's behavioural and emotional response to the virus can be understood through the framework of terror management theory, which proposes that fear of death drives much of human behaviour. In the context of the current pandemic, death anxiety, a recently proposed transdiagnostic construct, appears especially relevant. Fear of death has recently been shown to predict not only anxiety related to COVID-19, but also to play a causal role in various mental health conditions. Given this, it is argued that treatment programmes in mental health may need to broaden their focus to directly target the dread of death. Notably, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been shown to produce significant reductions in death anxiety. As such, it is possible that complementing current treatments with specific CBT techniques addressing fears of death may ensure enhanced long-term symptom reduction. Further research is essential in order to examine whether treating death anxiety will indeed improve long-term outcomes, and prevent the emergence of future disorders in vulnerable populations. KEY LEARNING
aims(1)To understand terror management theory and its theoretical explanation of death anxiety in the context of COVID-19.(2)To understand the transdiagnostic role of death anxiety in mental health disorders.(3)To understand current treatment approaches for directly targeting death anxiety, and the importance of doing so to improve long-term treatment outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.