Post-pandemic psychological fragility: what COVID really left us according to the Italian OraComeSto research
Post-pandemic psychological fragility has emerged as a widespread social phenomenon and has been widely described in the scientific literature. The OraComeSto study conducted by Stigmamente examined the relationship between mental health, pandemic fatigue, trust in medicine, and psychological changes during the COVID-19 years.
During the pandemic, mental health became one of the main social concerns, in addition to being a health issue. Isolation, fear of infection, and economic uncertainty produced a widespread psychological fragility, making symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress more visible.
For many citizens, this was not simply a temporary difficulty. The pandemic represented a collective experience of emotional vulnerability. The longitudinal research “OraComeSto” conducted by Stigmamente reveals how the well-being of Italians evolved during and after the lockdowns.
Post-pandemic psychological fragility: a new scenario for mental health
Post-pandemic psychological fragility should be understood as a broader transformation of the emotional and social climate rather than merely a statistical increase in individual psychological disorders.
It is therefore necessary to analyze not only individual symptoms but also the social, economic, and cultural factors that contributed to the spread of psychological distress.
The need to understand post-pandemic psychological fragility
Social Psychiatry had already faced similar questions after the global economic crisis of 2009. The economic collapse in Greece highlighted how new paradigms were necessary to discuss prevention and public health.
Ten years later, the pandemic acted as a collective stress test that exposed vulnerabilities already present in contemporary society. Anxiety, uncertainty, loss of motivation, and emotional exhaustion progressively changed the perception of psychological well-being within the population.
The OraComeSto research on post-pandemic psychological fragility
To better understand these changes, the #OraComeSto study was conducted and later published in the open-access FrancoAngeli volume Inclusion in the Cities of Education. Challenges, Cultures and Resources.
The study examined the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the Italian population, observing how psychological fragility and perceptions of well-being changed during different phases of the health emergency.
The study sample
The longitudinal survey involved more than 1,665 participants across three phases of the pandemic between 2020 and 2021.
Data were collected online:
during the first lockdown
during the reopening phase
during the second lockdown
This type of sampling allowed researchers to analyze not only the presence of psychological fragility but also how it evolved over time.
Internationally validated psychometric tools were used to investigate:
depressive symptoms
psychological well-being
alcohol consumption
resilience
Five key findings on post-pandemic psychological fragility
The analysis of the results is based on a bio-psycho-social approach, which considers mental health as the outcome of interactions between:
biological factors
psychological factors
social factors
This model allows post-pandemic psychological fragility to be interpreted as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon.
The analysis identified five main findings describing the transformation of psychological distress during the pandemic.
Increased suicide risk
Strong economic concerns
Worsening perception of physical well-being
Confirmation of pandemic fatigue
Trust in medicine
Domestic alcohol consumption habits
1 – The most concerning data: suicide risk
One of the most significant findings concerns suicide risk.
During the pandemic this indicator reached 12% of participants, while before the pandemic the Italian average was around 8%.
In simple terms, this means that severe psychological distress increased significantly.
This does not necessarily indicate suicide attempts but rather thoughts or signals of intense suffering that represent an important indicator of psychological fragility.
2 – The impact of economic insecurity
The pandemic also affected the perception of economic stability.
During the first lockdown, 26.1% of respondents feared job-related consequences.
In the following phase the percentage dropped to 19.8%, but during the second lockdown it rose to 32.8%.
Overall, between 63% and 73% of respondents expressed concerns about their economic future.
This finding is important because economic insecurity is one of the factors that most strongly influences mental health and depression.
3 – Worsening physical perception and psychological well-being
An indicator of well-being concerns how individuals perceive their physical condition.
During the first lockdown 44.3% of respondents reported feeling in good physical shape.
In the subsequent phase this percentage dropped to 38.7%.
This may appear to be a secondary result, but it is actually highly significant: body perception is closely linked to mental health.
When physical activity, social interaction, and movement decrease, symptoms of depression and emotional exhaustion tend to increase.
4 – Pandemic fatigue confirmed: an international model applicable to Italy
The research also confirmed the pandemic fatigue model in the Italian context.
This model was originally developed by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and later adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the psychological evolution of populations during the pandemic.
According to this model, people move through several psychological phases during a health crisis.
In the Italian case, the trajectory moved from social solidarity to emotional exhaustion.
According to the OraComeSto data, many societies initially showed strong social cohesion. However, as the months passed, a phase of emotional fatigue emerged, characterized by:
irritability
loss of motivation
frustration
increased psychological fragility
5 – Post-pandemic psychological fragility, institutional trust crisis, and the role of media
One of the most interesting results concerns the relationship between citizens and institutions.
The questionnaire revealed skepticism toward the political management of the pandemic, but not toward the medical profession.
The research suggests that the media environment during the pandemic contributed to confusion between different forms of skepticism.
The data instead show a clear distinction: distrust concerns political and communicative decisions rather than medical practice.
Trust in medical practices remained relatively stable. This suggests that public debate may sometimes have oversimplified the phenomenon, particularly regarding the influence of extremist anti-vaccine movements.
6 – Alcohol consumption during the pandemic
The research also analyzed alcohol consumption using the AUDIT test.
The results do not show a generalized increase in problematic alcohol consumption during the pandemic. However, in some groups with higher psychological fragility, alcohol was more frequently used as a coping strategy.
An interesting finding concerns the change in consumption contexts.
With the closure of social venues, alcohol consumption shifted more frequently to domestic settings. This suggests that mental health and social conditions influence not only how much people drink but also how and where drinking occurs.
A more fragile society and the need to rethink mental health
Overall, the results indicate an increase in psychological fragility within the population.
The pandemic made visible emotional difficulties that often remained hidden: mental exhaustion, loss of motivation, and symptoms of depression.
For many citizens, the health crisis functioned as a psychological stress test for society.
The pandemic demonstrated how fragile mental health can be during collective crises. Understanding psychological fragility and preventing depression requires social, educational, and health policies capable of addressing the complexity of contemporary distress.
The idiopathic society: a new interpretation of contemporary distress
The authors interpret these results through the concept of idiopathic society.
In medicine, the term idiopathic refers to a condition with no single identifiable cause. Applied to the social context, this concept describes a situation in which collective distress arises from the interaction of multiple factors and is capable of self-sustaining itself, becoming partially independent from its original etiologies.
Post-pandemic psychological fragility can therefore be interpreted as the result of a complex combination of:
health-related stress
economic instability
social transformations
cultural change
However, it has now acquired its own multidimensional complexity, requiring therapeutic and social strategies different from those traditionally considered effective.
From an idiopathic perspective, the pandemic did not create a new form of distress but rather made visible latent fragilities already present in contemporary society, accelerating their transformation and hybridization.
Luigi Starace, Mariella La Forgia Ph.D, Mariagostina Bucci
References
Starace L., La Forgia M. (2024). OraComeSto: mental health and social perception during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Inclusion in the Cities of Education. Challenges, Cultures and Resources. FrancoAngeli.
WHO (2020). Pandemic fatigue: reinvigorating the public to prevent COVID-19.
Brooks S. et al. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine. The Lancet.
Vindegaard N., Benros M. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and mental health consequences. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Pfefferbaum B., North C. (2020). Mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine.
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