Habituating to pandemic anxiety: Temporal trends of COVID-19 anxiety over sixteen months of COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 anxiety on mental health and its association with preventive measures is well-established. We aimed to study how COVID-19 anxiety and its dimensions vary over time (16 months) in a sample of individuals (N = 2717) suffering from mental distress in the pandemic context that participated in a randomized clinical trial testing psychosocial interventions in Brazil. Results showed that pandemic anxiety reduced over time. COVID-19 influences fear of others being infected and concerns about mental health being affected by COVID-19 were more significant than the fear of being infected or the physical health influenced by COVID-19. A similar temporal effect was not found for burnout, and this effect was not correlated with the number of COVID-related deaths. Habituation to pandemic anxiety or higher intolerance of uncertainty at the beginning of the pandemic is putative mechanisms for the patterns observed in the data. They might have implications for mental health interventions in the pandemic scenario and motivational strategies for prevention. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Plataforma Basil (CAAE: 30608420.5.0000.5327), ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04632082; November 17, 2020).