Pandemic-related stresses like as job loss, sorrow, social isolation, and uncertainty have contributed to an extremely high level of psychological suffering. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is becoming more prevalent in the civilian population as researchers and physicians wrestle with the psychological effects of COVID-19.

According to a paper published in the journal Chronic Stress by Yale Women’s Health Research in collaboration with French colleagues from Bordeaux University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD, there were 36 studies looking at the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in general populations. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms in the general population ranged from 5 percent to 55 percent, with an average prevalence of 26 percent across the studies.

Can such a large percentage of the population be affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the pandemic? About 3.5 percent of American adults were diagnosed with PTSD every year before the epidemic; women were twice as likely to suffer from the disease.

Traumatic events can cause “intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings,” according to the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of post-traumatic stress disorder. If the experience involved “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” either personally; as a witness; or as a person who learned of a loved one’s serious injury, sexual encounter, or violent or accidental death, then the diagnosis is appropriate.

Unless there are unexpected or catastrophic events, such as waking up during surgery or anaphylactic shock, clinical psychologist and University of Bordeaux professor Dr. Mathilde Husky notes that a life-threatening medical condition does not qualify. “As a disruptive global experience, can it be construed as direct exposure to a traumatizing event in the general population?”

Previously a postdoctoral student of Dr. Mazure’s, Mathilde Husky is now a professor at the University of Bordeaux and is the lead author of a paper on the pandemic’s impact on mental health.

“As clinicians, we always refer to a specific traumatic event, with a significant level of shock, when we ask about symptoms of PTSD,” Husky added. Why is it so difficult to ask someone whether they have had flashbacks in a pandemic that has been going on for nearly two years? Are they avoiding circumstances or indications in their surroundings that can jog their memories of the incident? A small percentage of those affected by the pandemic report a single horrific experience, but the majority don’t.

Authors are now questioning whether the pandemic can be regarded a single entity because it can effect individuals in so many various ways over such a long period of time, depending on their jobs and exposure to the disease and other preexisting stressors and psychopathology, among other things. Other classification systems must also take into account the health needs of those who experience stress as a long-term phenomenon with varied degrees of severity or shock.

There are many ways to classify perceived stress, but the authors, including Drs. Robert Pietrzak of Yale University, and Brian Marx of the National Center for PTSD, recommend that PTSD criteria be met or that a different, alternative way of classifying stress that is related to a long, ongoing adverse experience be considered. For this reason, the authors propose collecting information about earlier mental health conditions and exposures to trauma in order to better understand the origins of current symptoms.

Dr. Carolyn M. Mazure, senior author and director of WHRY, remarked, “We must also continue to focus on how preexisting and concurrent stressors may disproportionately affect women more than men.” When it comes to efforts to contain the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in schools or workplaces, a growing body of evidence suggests that these measures affect women more severely. Women may have more ongoing pressures than males.