Depressive symptoms and psychological pain experienced by Polish adults in the context of both the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: This study sought to investigate the perceived influence of stressful events (i.e., the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the political situation, and the COVID-19 pandemic) on the depressive symptoms and psychological pain experienced by Polish adults. The study also aimed to explore the association between experiential avoidance and emotional distress. METHOD: 110 Polish social media users aged 18–89 completed online the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Psychache Scale and the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire-30 and questions concerning perceived influence of stressful event on their emotional functioning. RESULTS: More than half of the participants (52.7%) reported experiencing a subjective increase in their depressive symptoms since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Interestingly, a larger percentage of participants associated their emotional distress with the outbreak of the war (44.6%) and the overall political situation (39.2%) than with the COVID-19 pandemic (27.2%). In addition, experiential avoidance was found to be associated with subjective increases in the participants’ depressive symptoms and emotional distress. LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional character of the study, small sample size, and exclusive use of online data are main limitation of the study. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of our study can help planning preventive and therapeutic interventions for at-risk individuals to reduce negative long-term outcomes of the recent stressful life events in Poland.