'Emotional COVID-19': How the global pandemic affected the mental well-being of Israelis | Weizmann Institute of Science

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Aug. 12, 2021 (MedicalXpress) -- The pandemic in Israel hit women, young adults and the unemployed hardest in terms of increased mental distress, a study shows.

During the six weeks between the end of the first COVID-19 outbreak in Israel and the beginning of the second one (late April to early June of 2020), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science initiated a study that encompassed more than 12,000 responses from nearly 5,000 respondents to digital questionnaires, in an attempt to assess and understand the mental toll of the pandemic on the country's adult population.

While adults, particularly men, are at greater risk of developing serious illness from COVID-19, the study's findings show that the pandemic hit women, young adults and the unemployed the hardest in terms of increased mental distress.

The new study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, indicates that these groups more frequently developed both physiological and behavioral symptoms associated with such distress -- from an increase in heart rate to sleeping disorders.

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