Initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic on real-life well-being, social contact and roaming behavior in patients with schizophrenia, major depression and healthy controls: A longitudinal ecological momentary assessment study.

The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted people's daily lives. However, it remains unknown how the pandemic situation affects daily-life experiences of individuals with preexisting severe mental illnesses (SMI). In this real-life longitudinal study, the acute onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany did not cause the already low everyday well-being of patients with schizophrenia (SZ) or major depression (MDD) to decrease further. On the contrary, healthy participants' well-being, anxiety, social isolation, and mobility worsened, especially in healthy individuals at risk for mental disorder, but remained above the levels seen in patients. Despite being stressful for healthy individuals at risk for mental disorder, the COVID-19 pandemic had little additional influence on daily-life well-being in psychiatric patients with SMI. This highlights the need for preventive action and targeted support of this vulnerable population.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest AM-L has received consultant fees from Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Brainsway, CISSN (Catania International Summer School of Neuroscience), Daimler und Benz Stiftung, EPFL Brain Mind Institute, Fondation FondaMental, Hector Stiftung II, Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Lundbeck A/S, Lundbeckfonden, Lundbeck Int. Neuroscience Foundation, MedinCell, Sage Therapeutics, Techspert.io, The LOOP Zürich, University Medical Center Utrecht, von Behring Röntgen Stiftung; speaker fees from Ärztekammer Nordrhein, BAG Psychiatrie Oberbayern, Biotest AG, Forum Werkstatt Karlsruhe, International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, Brentwood, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Ingolstadt, Lundbeck SAS France, med Update GmbH, Merz-Stiftung, Siemens Healthineers, Society of Biological Psychiatry and editorial and/or author fees from American Association for the Advancement of Science, ECNP, Thieme Verlag. UE-P reports consultancy for Boehringer-Ingelheim. The other authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)