Unequal effects of the national lockdown on mental and social health in Italy
Authors
Emanuele Caroppo, Pietro De Lellis, Ilaria Lega, Antonella Candelori, Daniela Pedacchia, Alida Pellegrini, Rossella Sonnino, Virginia Venturiello, Manuel Ruiz Marín, Maurizio Porfiri
Abstract
With the exception of a few countries that chose a different approach, the worldwide
reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was a (longer or shorter) period of national lockdown.
While the economic consequences of shutting down national economies were immediately
evident, the sociopsychiatric implications of the social confinement of the entire
population remain hidden and not fully understood. Italy has been the first European
country to be severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to which it responded
through strict lockdown measurements. The results of a timely survey on mental and social
health, carried out by students and teachers of a middle school in Rome, might help
identify the most vulnerable groups of the population. This evidence could be crucial in
conceiving and enacting targeted public health policies to mitigate the consequences of
the pandemic on mental health and to prevent intolerance to containment measures in
some population segments, which could hamper worldwide efforts in the fight against
COVID-19.
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