ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2024
Relevance of spirituality and perceived social support to mental health of people with pre-existing mental health disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal investigation.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolving Faith: Changes in Spiritual Experiences and Their Role in Recovery as Reported by Peer Support Workers.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Psychological and spiritual well-being of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in Ghana.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Spiritual Health and Psychological Distress Among Hong Kong Community Lay Leaders.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Overcoming times of crisis: unveiling coping strategies and mental health in a transnational general population sample during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- How Mental Health and Suicidality Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in the General and Psychiatric Population Illustrating Risk and Protective Factors.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic and related measures have negatively impacted mental health worldwide. The main objective of the present longitudinal study was to investigate mental health in people living in Tyrol (Austria) and South Tyrol (Italy) during the COVID-19 pandemic and to report the prevalence of psychological distress among individuals with versus those without pre-existing mental health disorders (MHD) in the long-term (summer 2020-winter 2022). Here, we specifically focus on the relevance of spirituality and perceived social support in this regard.
methods161 individuals who had been diagnosed with MHD and 446 reference subjects participated in this online survey. Electronic data capture was conducted using the Computer-based Health Evaluation System and included both sociodemographic and clinical aspects as well as standardized questionnaires on psychological distress, spirituality, and the perception of social support.
resultsThe prevalence of psychological distress was significantly higher in individuals with MHD (36.6% vs. 12.3%) and remained unchanged among both groups over time. At baseline, the perception of social support was significantly higher in healthy control subjects, whereas the two groups were comparable in regards of the subjective relevance of faith. Reference subjects indicated significantly higher spiritual well-being in terms of the sense of meaning in life and peacefulness, which mediated in large part the between-group difference of psychological distress at follow-up. Notably, both faith and the perception of social support did not prove to be relevant in this context.
conclusionsThese findings point to a consistently high prevalence of psychological distress among people suffering from MHD and underscore the prominent role of meaning in life and peacefulness as a protective factor in times of crisis. Therapeutic strategies that specifically target spirituality may have a beneficial impact on mental health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.