Changes in symptoms of general anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, social anxiety and generalized anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic in college students

Despite the negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health, our knowledge of the changes in the severity of symptoms of psychological disorders during the pandemic is insufficient.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the symptoms of anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety in the student population during the covid-19 pandemic.

This study is a longitudinal descriptive study in terms of data collection. A sample of 376 people was selected with the convenience sampling method from the Zanjan University of Medical Sciences and Zanjan National University undergraduate students using an online research platform (Porsal). The sample was evaluated in 4 stages at 6-month intervals from April 2020 to September 2021. BDI-II, BAI, GAD-7, OCI-R, and SPIN were used for data collection. The data were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA using SPSS version 26, and R software.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the intensity of symptoms of anxiety (p=0.008), obsessive-compulsive (p=0.023) and generalized anxiety (p=0.052) had an increasing trend, and with the subsidence of the pandemic conditions, the intensity of these symptoms has also been reduced. However, the intensity of depression was continuously increasing (p=0.001), and the intensity of social anxiety also had slight changes (p=0.964).

Covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant increase in the severity of the symptoms of psychological disorders; therefore, it is necessary to investigate the underlying factors of these changes and other psychological consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic by conducting more extensive studies.