Beta Fulltext view is in preview — article structure may vary. Browse all articles
Contents
Mental Health & Human Resilience International Journal Research Article 30 min read

Post-Truth Reality: Worldwide Infodemia and Mental Health Concerns during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Scenarios

Chavez-Valdez SM*
* Corresponding author
ISSN: 2578-5095  10.23880/mhrij-16000262  Received: January 07, 2025  Published: February 20, 2025
 — views
 128 references
PDF
Keywords
Infodemic Stress Anxiety Depression Pandemic Mind Health
Abstract

Introduction: The health emergency due to COVID-19 added to the pre-existing mental health panorama, especially with respect to perceived stress, anxiety and depression, to the risk cognition that the infodemia entails, together with the economic and psychosocial ones, triggered a mental health pandemic in the medium and long term. mental health. Aim: Describe associations between infodemia, mental and psychosocial health as well as associated conditions in the population during the contingency due to the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional, empirical, descriptive study was carried out through a documentary review. Results: Massive information promotes beliefs, values and ideals endorsed as real that misinform, generating chaos in virtual communities disregarding scientific evidence, consequently, detonating greater physical and mental vulnerability that reinforced a pandemic mental health crisis due to SARS-COV2.

Introduction

Since the middle of the 20th century, and the remainder of the 21st century, humans have developed modern technologies, infrastructure and cutting-edge devices, whsich allow global connectivity between people through the Internet [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Likewise, traditional media have served as mechanisms for the dissemination of information throughout the different regions of the planet in recent centuries [8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Currently, there are different channels through which information can travel simultaneously to almost every corner of the planet, providing accessibility, linking and dissemination of social, cultural, health, economic, political information, among many others [13].

It is important to highlight that, for a long time, the traditional press has played a fundamental role in the dissemination of knowledge of all kinds, but mainly information linked to topics of social relevance or news about local, regional, national and transnational events, such as this happens with information about natural disasters, meteorological phenomena, war situations, religion, entertainment, relevant achievements for humanity and medical information and advances in health issues [14]. However, in recent years, the press and the dissemination of news through the Internet have been relevant, since thanks to new smart devices, digital information has become the main source of distribution and consumption of data and all kind news, substantially outpacing traditional print media [15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]. From Google, WhatsApp, Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok, among many others, they are the most used media par excellence [21, 22].

Currently, the number of people who have a smart device is more than 3,000 million users, which will increase in the coming years, taking into account the increase in the trend registered from 2014 to 2020, in the main economies of the world. world [23]. Similarly, the number of users of social platforms is estimated at 3.6 billion users [22]. In this sense, the gender distribution in the continents of the planet is estimated as follows: Europe 84.9% men and 80.3% women; America 77.6% men and 76.8% women; Africa 33.8% men, 22.6% women; Asia 54.6% men and 41.3% women; Arab states 58.5% men and 44.2% women, to mention some data [23].

In Mexico there are 80.6 million internet users and 86.5 million smartphone users, which, based on the frequency of consumption recorded from 2015 to 2019, has been increasing, so this trend will most likely continue to rise for years to come. The age range of Internet users and/ or Internet users ranges mainly from 12 to 44 years; In relation to the gender proportion, we have that 51.6% are women and 48.4% are men, and among the main uses given to the network and devices, the following stand out: entertainment 91.5%, access to news and information 90.7% , communication 90.6% and social networks 90.3%, as well as other categories of leisure, education, services, commerce, work, among others [24, 25].

In this way, we can understand that the interconnectivity of people through the global Internet network is immense and easily accessible to the populations of many countries and regions of the planet, which allows the dispersion of information almost immediately, That is, millions of publications, such as news, tweets, messages, images and other digital products, are shared in real time, making control, filtering and/or censorship complicated. The capacity management of the platforms and companies is surpassed and for this reason 100% of the material that is shared on the networks is disseminated, and it is not until, through complaints, or censorship by key words or algorithms, the Information is filtered and takes time to be removed from these networks [26].

Given that people’s daily dynamics are influenced by the news disseminated by the media [27], the impact generated by the news in the digital press and in traditional print media is undeniable, which generate different reactions since In turn, they impact the people who consume them differently, in such a way that they mainly reach those populations that are less academically prepared [28].

Derived from this influence of the news and information disseminated in the media of all types, the credibility or trust of people towards the news media, governments and the institutions in charge of informing the population decreased during and after the COVID 19 pandemia, generating that People have lost confidence in the veracity of press content [29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35]. It has been documented that such people’s distrust of the media encourages the obsessive search for information from alternative sources [36]. A consequence of this is that we are currently entering a period called “post-truth” or “post-truth” from the Anglo-Saxon term, where, derived from the little credibility in the media and official sources of information, people tend to value the news. and false information, in relation to real information, which causes false news to emerge en masse. Likewise, this type of news is disseminated excessively, since people are usually sharing this type of false information and even more prevalent than that disseminated by media considered institutional or governmental [37, 38, 39].

The Oxford Dictionary [40] defines the term “post-truth” as “relating to circumstances in which people respond more to feelings and beliefs than facts. In this era of post-truth politics, it is easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you want” (parr. 1). This “post-truth” phenomenon has been linked to the growing disdain for logical evidence, mainly in political discourse, that is, what really matters for the masses is not whether political discourse can be proven with facts or not, but rather that the only thing that matters is the receiving public of said discourse, since they are the ones who, based on their beliefs, values and ideals, endorse said information as real or viable, leaving aside factual evidence and science [41].

Currently, attention to “fake news” makes it difficult to distinguish between what is real and unreal, so this condition is an indication that we are entering an era after the truth [42]. In relation to this, we have that the terms “post-truth” and “fake news” are increasingly common in contemporary life, and can be explained as a fragmented media landscape, in which information is ambiguous and the truth is subject to the social mega trends, a product of collective distrust towards governments based on the very unequal conditions between individuals [43]. In such a way that “post-truth” “would be referring to the flagrant lies routine in every society and offers politicians access to lies without condemnation” [44].

We live in times where certain corporations, governments and political parties, with clandestine technologies, manipulate and economically exploit “massive information” or also called “big data”, managing the masses at their will, creating trends in networks, dividing people into opinions and discrediting the truth, to favor false and conspiracy models or theories, left logic and acting on impulse or emotion, in the absence of control over online information and its dissemination due to the weakening of the entities in charge of regulate information [45]. In itself “it is about indicating not so much the idea that we are a past truth in a temporal sense (as in the postwar), but in the sense that the truth has been eclipsed by the irrelevant” [46]. So we have that “false information” or “misinformation” is impacting the trust of entire groups and also affects government institutions [47], promoting little attachment to public policies of all kinds, in the face of collective fear. and social distrust as a result of perceived institutional incapacity, the government’s disinterest in guaranteeing access to health for all people, and police brutality; left access to human health at a global level to chance and the economic possibilities of each individual [48].

Thus, the term “fake news” is “post-truth” [49], so that “false” or “fake” information has its origin in the lack of scrupulousness of the electoral political contexts in the United States in the year 2016, given the chaos generated in virtual communities based mainly on adulterated or unfounded information, which had an impact on the elections [37, 38, 39, 50, 51].

It is known that fake news is initially spread in non- popular media, and permeates public opinion as it is shared by internet users [52]. The impact that media information of all kinds generates on society is undeniable, so whether the information is real or not, it represents a stressor for the central nervous system of individuals, that is, when the news stimulus or the informational stressor is perceived by the brain, the body immediately launches its stress reaction mechanisms [53, 54].

It can be stated that there is a response activation system in the face of danger that is turned on, triggering a whole series of neurophysiological and biochemical mechanisms throughout the organism almost instantaneously, to confront the danger that the subject faces at that moment: whether it is a life or death situation, or whether it is a purely mental or ideological issue as commonly happens with people today, who present all kinds of stressors that test the stress response mechanism, but unlike the necessary autonomous response to the danger presented by wild animals and our human ancestors that they naturally had to face for their subsistence.

The aforementioned stressors currently have such a physiological and emotional impact that they do not disappear, but rather remain constant and for prolonged periods, so once these neurophysiological stress response processes are activated, a series of biomolecular decompensations are triggered and/or or hormonal that wear down the individual in the long term, activated without control and are observed more and more as the alert persists and physical and mental wear and tear occurs in the autonomic effort that the body makes to survive [55, 56, 57]. As a result of this situation, the body destabilizes its homeostatic balance and the longer the body remains in active mode in the face of fear or danger, the greater this decompensation in organic functioning will be [58, 59, 60].

If people remain exposed to stressors constantly for a long period of time, catastrophic consequences can be considered for the health and well-being of societies, leading to chronic-degenerative diseases, acute and post-traumatic stress, and avoidance habits. addictive, predisposing the body to get sick from viruses and/or pathogens, by weakening the immune system [61, 62].

In such a way that, for many years now, the dynamics of social life, as well as the accelerated pace of life of people around the world, has led to a global mental health crisis in general, since for several years or decades, discomfort and comorbid mental illness have been documented in people, as a result of the high levels of stress that people must face in their daily lives, even leading to psychopathy, and psychosis [63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69].

So the stress produced by the infodemic during COVID 19 was such, that we must be aware of the future impact that this environment of mistrust detonates on global mental health, based on what Maslow AH [70] proposes in relation to the basic needs for human self-realization, of which we have that security is one of the main ones, for this reason all those things or situations that jeopardize the perception of security in individuals will directly influence the activation of the evolutionary stress response system. Security provides confidence in people and the lack of certainty of events generates a perception of insecurity, which in turn evokes feelings of social unrest, a fundamental process to achieve a strong fabric with social cohesion in societies [71, 72].

Consequently, this panorama of severity in relation to the prevalence of mental illness, as well as the predisposition of the environment and social dynamics in general for societies in previous years, is that unexpectedly during the last year, a pandemic of health, derived from COVID-19, a virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, and that in a matter of months spread to almost all regions of the planet, resulting in a serious health problem, generating millions of deaths and sick in all countries and cultures; So in a short time it went from being a local phenomenon to becoming a global pandemic, triggering alerts and putting governments and health institutions around the world [73, 74, 75, 76].

In an attempt to contain the spread of the virus, at the expense of saving human life, a global closure of activity was carried out in a significant way, where scientific literature showed evidence of these social isolation measures as favorable for the containment of the virus, even knowing the effects on mental health problems that this would cause at a medium term [77, 78, 79]. As a result of some of these confinement measures, to contain the COVID-19 virus, various situations of psycho-emotional discomfort began to arise among people. Everything happened in a very short period of time, while the virus spread in the world, a series of negative conditions emerged in people’s mental health, as a result of isolation and confinement due to the mandatory quarantine mandate in many countries around the world [80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87].

Added to this situation of poor social support and contact between people, the complex grief proccesses for the death of family members, friends and people in general that many people experienced during COVID 19 around the world caused a considerable social trauma condition for these communities [88, 89, 90, 91]. Uncertain working or economic conditions should also be added in the face of irreparable economic losses and community trauma people had to experience [92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97]. Likewise, we should add the predisposition to disease and mental illnesses due to poor nutrition and avoidance-addictive behaviors that had an expanded increase after COVID 19, and excessive caloric intake of processed foods, which modify homeostatic functioning and generating additional problems [98, 99]. Along these same lines, it must be taken into account that people with obesity and comorbid dieases like diabetes, were the most affected by the virus [100]. Finally, the widespread fear or perceived vulnerability to contagion must be taken into account [101, 102].

All of these conditions together generated a favorable breeding ground for symptoms of mental discomfort in general, because each condition is in itself a variable that predisposes to mental illness and comorbidities, even more so all of them together, giving way to a whole series of psychological conditions, as an outcome of the adverse and complex mental health and commorbidity pandemia, faced today. During recent months, a growing number of scientific publications report an association between mental illness as a consequence of the pandemic caused by COVID 19 and the mental illness boom after COVID 19 [103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113]. Given that each of the different reported variables of mental illness are not only present in the vulnerable population, but also appear in health workers and front-line people, who were seriously affected during and after COVID 19 with hyperarousal alarming states of psychological discomfort, complicated mental health situation [114, 115, 116]. Along with the COVID 19 pandemic, a medical and psychosocial nature phenomenon called infodemic, which has to do with information specifically associated with COVID-19 and post COVID 19 information, whether true or false, much or little, have led to a breeding ground for people’s misinformation, and, therefore, insecurity derived from non-certainty or non- truth, the “post-truth reality”.

The aforementioned situations in relation to the health pandemic, some derived from the COVID-19 virus itself, such as the physical conditions to the body in those who suffer from it, the collateral effects of inflammation in the nervous system and the traumatic consequences. of mental order in those who have suffered it, the impact on the families of patients, mainly when there is death, and the social stigma that derived from the rejection and fear of the sick, and in this case the worldwide widespread infodemia and its psychosocial effects as a second condition resulting from fear, doubt and social distrust, produced by the overwhelming number of information, both false and real, about COVID-19 [117].

Today we talk about the implications for mental health of the excessive bombardment and hazardous information disseminated through all media, reference is made to the impact of this on people’s mental health, and how this information affected the minimization of the spread of the virus of COVID-19, as well as the voluntary or involuntary modification of beliefs, myths and realities about it by media, social groups or governments. Therefore, the excessive or abundant information, also named, infodemia, or false information or with an evident intention of discrediting official sources, that is, disinfodemia [118]. Has demonstrated to be hazardous for Mental Health indexes worldwide.

The reality is that this phenomenon of information consumption is now linked to mental problems [119, 120]. Likewise, exposure to social networks has an impact on mental health in very precise times such as the quarantine [106]. Therefore, the fight of health agencies and governments was not only against the virus and its spread, but it also had to be focused on behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, prejudices and perception to an adequate management of this pandemic situation which now demonstrated to be an additional factor that complicated care and containment of the ravages of the disease itself, but above all it generated uncertainty and insecurity in people, which added to the conditions of mental vulnerability derived from lack of security, or the perception of insecurity, generated high levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Stress, as an innate mechanism for coping with fear, generates physiological sensations that, when the stressor does not disappear or remains latent, lead to anxiety and social discomfort, a product of sustained decompensation.

So, once the link between COVID-19 and the mental conditions generated by the experience of living in times of global quarantine or collective forced confinement is documented and understood, which have left as evidence that not only the virus itself brought consequences, the news and information distributed in digital and traditional media brought high indexes of risk perception, fear, uncertainty and ignorance, and generated hyperarousal alarms in all the world, stress and insecurity in post- pandemic communities.

There is evidence in the scientific literature to argue that the COVID-19 situation has significantly shaken mental health at a global level, evoking three major variables in general: anxiety, depression and perceived stress [112]. However, this is not new, but the global panorama regarding mental health and comorbidity was already serious and in the world in years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, since the disorders mental disorders have increased and sustained during the years 2018 and 2019 [121, 122, 123, 124].

Currently, an attempt has been made to document comparative studies of before (pre) and after (post) COVID-19 in European countries before the resurgence of the pandemic, and it has been found that people express greater discomfort as a result of the pandemic, mainly highlighting an increase in anxiety compared to previous years, and also, an increase in depression, in the United States [125, 126, 127, 128].

So, added to the complex pre-existing panorama of mental health in general, we had all these emerging conditions resulting from the adverse situations due to the emergence of COVID-19, and the way in which governments and their unclear policies managed this global crisis, the institutions in charge of health and its deficiency in the supply of supplies and the low capacity to care for patients, and the economic collapse. The pandemic came to shake the already battered mental health worldwide with consequences in our post pandemic mental health scenario.

Therefore, as mental health professionals, we must be alert to this emerging phenomenon, and therefore develop and propose interventions aimed at the primary and secondary levels of prevention, care and online health monitoring through information and intervention programs to preserve the world mental health, or else in the coming years we will have a negative outlook regarding well-being and mental health commorbidities. We must be aware that the ravages, impact and other indicators of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, and that in this post-pandemic panorama a secondary mental health pandemia is now a current emergency, to take care about.

References

  1. Islam N, Want R (2014) Smartphones: Past, Present, and Future. IEEE Pervasive Computing 13(4): 89-92.
  2. Kleinrock L (2010) An early history of the internet History of Communications. IEEE Communications Magazine 48(8): 26-36.
  3. Leiner B, Cerf V, Clark D, Kahn R, Kleinrock L, et al. (2009) A brief history of the internet. Computer Communication Review 39(5): 22.
  4. Petrazzini B, Kibati M (1999) The Internet in developing countries. Communications of the ACM 42(6): 31-36.
  5. Reid AJ (2018) A Brief History of the Smartphone. The Smartphone Paradox pp: 35-66.
  6. Tan Z, Foster W, Goodman S (1999) China’s state- coordinated Internet infrastructure. Communications of the ACM 42(6): 44-52.
  7. Winseck (2017) The Geopolitical Economy of the Global Internet Infrastructure. Journal of Information Policy pp: 7.
  8. Briggs A, Burke P (2009) A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Polity Press, UK.
  9. Chapman J (2005) Comparative Media History: An Introduction: 1789 to the Present. Polity Press, UK.
  10. Fourie P (2010) Media Studies: Media History, Media, and Society. Juta and Company Ltd, South Africa.
  11. Gitelman L (2008) Always Already New: Media, History and the Data of Culture. MIT Press, USA.
  12. Gitelman L (2014) Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents. United States: Duke University Press.
  13. Marshall M, Powers B (2020) The global village: Transformations in global life and media in the 21st century. Spain.
  14. Schudson M (2008) News and democratic society: past, present, and future. The Hedgehog Review 10(2): 7-23.
  15. Fortunati L, O’Sullivan J (2018) Situating the social sustainability of print media in a world of digital alternatives. Telematics and Informatics.
  16. Ghersetti M (2013) Still the Same?. Journalism Practice 8(4): 373-389.
  17. Gill K, Mao A, Powell AM, Sheidow T (2013) Digital reader vs print media: the role of digital technology in reading accuracy in age-related macular degeneration Eye 27(5): 639-643.
  18. Kurata K, Ishita E, Miyata Y, Minami Y (2016) Print or digital? Reading behavior and preferences in Japan. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 68(4): 884-894.
  19. Nossek H, Adoni H, Nimrod G (2015) Media Audiences| Is Print Really Dying? The State of Print Media Use in Europe. International Journal of Communication 9: 21.
  20. Twenge JM, Martin GN, Spitzberg BH (2019) Trends in US Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology of Popular Media Culture 8(4): 329-345.
  21. Anderson M, Jiang J (2018) Teens, Social Media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center.
  22. Clement J (2020a) Global social networks ranked by number of users 2020.
  23. Fernández R (2020) Smartphone users worldwide 2016- 2021.
  24. Clement J (2020b) Global internet usage rate 2019, by gender and region.
  25. Federal Institute of Telecommunications (2020) In Mexico there are 80.6 million internet users and 86.5 million cell phone users: ENDUTIH 2019
  26. Sleeper M, Balebako R, Das S, McConahy AL, Wiese J, et al. (2013) The post that wasn’t. Proceedings of the 2013. Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work- CSCW pp: 13.
  27. Hodgetts D, Chamberlain K (2020) Analyzing News Media. In: Uwe Flick (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. SAGE, United States.
  28. Schrøder K, Steeg Larsen B (2010) The Shinfting Cross- Media News Landscape. Journalism Studies 11(4): 524- 534.
  29. Fisher C (2016) The trouble with “trust” in news media. Communication Research and Practice 2(4): 451-465.
  30. Fisher C (2018) What Is Meant By “Trust” In News Media?. Trust in Media and Journalism pp: 19-38.
  31. Fletcher R, Park S (2017) The Impact of Trust in the News Media on Online News Consumption and Participation. Digital Journalism 5(10): 1281-1299.
  32. Kohring M, Matthes J (2007) Trust in News Media. Communication Research 34(2): 231-252.
  33. Mourão R, Thorson E, Chen W, Tham S (2018) Media Repertoires and News Trust During the Early Trump Administration. Journalism Studies pp: 1-12.
  34. Turcotte J, York C, Irving J, Scholl R, Pingree R (2015) News Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and Information Seeking. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20(5): 520-535.
  35. Williams A (2012) Trust or Bust?: Questioning the Relationship Between Media Trust and News Attention. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(1): 116- 131.
  36. Kalogeropoulos A, Suiter J, Udris L, Eisenegger M (2019) News Media Trust and News Consumption: Factors Related to Trust in News in 35 Countries. International Journal of Communication 13: 22.
  37. Aradau C, Huysmans J (2018) Assembling credibility: Knowledge, method and criticism in times of “post- truth”. Security Dialogue.
  38. Iyengar S, Massey D (2018) Scientific communication in a post-truth society. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201805868.
  39. Peters M, McLaren P, Jandrić P (2020) A viral theory of post-truth. Educational Philosophy and Theory pp: 1-9.
  40. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (2020) Post-Truth adjective. Oxford University Press.
  41. Lockie S (2016) Post-truth politics and the social sciences. Environmental Sociology 3(1): 1-5.
  42. Sismondo S (2017) Post-truth?. Social Studies of Science 47(1): 3-6.
  43. Lewandowsky S, Ecker U, Cook J (2017) Beyond Misinformation: Understanding and Coping with the “Post-Truth” Era. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 6(4): 353-369.
  44. Higgins K (2016) Post-truth: a guide for the perplexed. Nature 540(7631): 9-9.
  45. D’Anconda M (2017) Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back. USA. Ebury Press, UK.
  46. McIntyre L (2018) PostTruth. MIT Press, United States.
  47. Lewis S (2018) Lack of trust in the news media, institutional weakness, and relational journalism as a potential way forward. Journalism 146488491880759.
  48. Alang S, McAlpine DD, Hardeman R (2020) Police Brutality and Mistrust in Medical Institutions. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
  49. Waisbord S (2018) Truth is What Happens to News. Journalism Studies pp: 1-13.
  50. Huckle S, White M (2017) Fake News: A Technological Approach to Proving the Origins of Content, Using Blockchains. Big Data 5(4): 356-371.
  51. Jang S, Geng T, Queenie Li JY, Xia R, Huang CT, et al. (2018) A computational approach for examining the roots and spreading patterns of fake news: Evolution tree analysis. Computers in Human Behavior 84: 103-113.
  52. Parikh S, Patil V, Atrey P (2019) On the Origin, Proliferation and Tone of Fake News. IEEE Conference on Multimedia Information Processing and Retrieval (MIPR).
  53. Cool J, Zappetti D (2019) The Physiology of Stress. Medical Student Well-Being pp: 1-15.
  54. Everly G, Lating J (2019) The Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Stress Response. A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response pp: 19-56.
  55. Porges S (2003) The Polyvagal Theory: phylogenetic contributions to social behavior. Physiology & Behavior 79(3): 503-513.
  56. Porgues S (2009) The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine 76(2): S86-S90.
  57. Porgues S, Dana D (2018) Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal- Informed Therapies (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). United States: Norton & Company.
  58. Chovatiya R, Medzhitov R (2014) Stress, Inflammation, and Defense of Homeostasis. Molecular Cell 54(2): 281- 288.
  59. Miller D, O’Callaghan J (2002) Neuroendocrine aspects of the response to stress. Metabolism 51(6): 5-10.
  60. Papadimitriou A, Priftis K (2009) Regulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis. Neuroimmunomodulation 16(5): 265-271.
  61. Herman J, McKlveen JM, Solomon M, Carvalho-Netto E, Myers B (2012) Neural regulation of the stress response: glucocorticoid feedback mechanisms. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research 45(4): 292-298.
  62. Herman J, McKlveen JM, Ghosal S, Kopp B, Wulsin A, et al. (2016) Regulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary- Adrenocortical Stress Response. Comprehensive Physiology pp: 603-621.
  63. Cohen S, Murphy M, Prather A (2018) Ten Surprising Facts about Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk. Annual Review of Psychology 70(1).
  64. Lopes C, Faerstein E, Chor D (2003) Life events that cause stress and common mental disorders: results of the Pró-Saúde Study. Cadernos de Saúde Pública 19(6): 1713-1720.
  65. Ludwig L, Pasman J, Nicholson T, Aybek S, David AS, et al. (2018) Stressful life events and maltreatment in conversion (functional neurological) disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies. The Lancet Psychiatry 5(4): 307-320.
  66. Schönfeld P, Brailovskaia J, Bieda A, Zhang XC, Margraf J (2016) The effects of daily stress on positive and negative mental health: Mediation through self-efficacy. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 16(1): 1-10.
  67. Mezuk B, Rafferty J, Kershaw K, Hudson D, Abdou C, et al. (2010) Reconsidering the Role of Social Disadvantage in Physical and Mental Health: Stressful Life Events, Health Behaviors, Race, and Depression. American Journal of Epidemiology 172(11): 1238-1249.
  68. Eisenbarth H, Godinez D, Pont A du, Corley RP, Stallings MC, et al. (2018) The influence of stressful life events, psychopathy, and their interaction on internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Psychiatry Research.
  69. Mayo D, Corey S, Kelly L, Yohannes S, Youngquist A, et al. (2017) The Role of Trauma and Stressful Life Events among Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: A Review. Frontiers in Psychiatry 8.
  70. Maslow AH (1943) A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50(4): 370-396.
  71. Tsfati Y (2010) Online News Exposure and Trust in the Mainstream Media: Exploring Possible Associations. American Behavioral Scientist 54(1): 22-42.
  72. Tsfati Y, Cappella JN (2003) Do People Watch what they Do Not Trust? Communication Research, 30(5) 504-529.
  73. Palacios Cruz M, Santos E, Velázquez Cervantes M, León Juárez M (2020) COVID-19, a global public health emergency. Spanish Clinical Magazine.
  74. Pérez-Abreu M, Gómez-Tejeda J, Dieguez-Guach R (2020) Clinical-epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19. Habanera Journal of Medical Sciences 19(2).
  75. Velavan T, Meyer C (2020) The COVID-19 epidemic. Tropical medicine & international health 25(3): 278- 280.
  76. Zu J, Li M, Li Z, Shen M, Xiao Y, et al. (2020) Transmission patterns of COVID-19 in the mainland of China and the efficacy of different control strategies: a data- and model-driven study. Infectious Diseases of Poverty 9(1).
  77. Lau H, Khosrawipour V, Kocbach P, Mikolajczyk A, Schubert J, et al. (2020) The positive impact of lockdown in Wuhan on containing the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Journal of Travel Medicine.
  78. Medeiros de Figueiredo A, Daponte-Codina A, Moreira Marculino Figueiredo D, Saez M, Cabrera León A (2020) Impact of lockdown on COVID-19 incidence and mortality in China: an interrupted time series study.
  79. Sardar T, Nadim SS, Rana S, Chattopadhyay J (2020) Assessment of Lockdown Effect in Some States and Overall India: A Predictive Mathematical Study on COVID-19 Outbreak. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 110078.
  80. Amerio A, Brambilla A, Morganti A, Aguglia A, Bianchi D, et al. (2020) COVID-19 Lockdown: Housing Built Environment’s Effects on Mental Health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16): 5973.
  81. García-Álvarez L, De la Fuente-Tomás L, García-Portilla MP, Sáiz PA, Lacasa CM, et al. (2020) Early psychological impact of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown in a large Spanish sample. Journal of Global Health 10(2).
  82. Gualano M, Lo Moro G, Voglino G, Bert F, Siliquini R (2020) Effects of Covid-19 Lockdown on Mental Health and Sleep Disturbances in Italy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(13): 4779.
  83. Kochhar A, Bhasin R, Kochhar G, Dadlani H, Mehta V, et al. (2020) Lockdown of 1.3 Billion People In India During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Survey Of Its Impact On Mental Health. Asian Journal of Psychiatry 102213.
  84. Pieh C, Budimir S, Probst T (2020) The effect of age, gender, income, work, and physical activity on mental health during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in Austria. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 110186.
  85. Pieh C, O’Rourke T, Budimir S, Probst T (2020) Relationship quality and mental health during COVID-19 lockdown. Plos One 15(9).
  86. Rossi R, Socci V, Talevi D, Mensi S, Niolu C, et al. (2020) COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures Impact on Mental Health Among the General Population in Italy, Frontiers in Psychiatry 11.
  87. Taquet M, Quoidbach J, Fried E, Goodwin G (2020) Mood Homeostasis Before and During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Lockdown Among Students in the Netherlands. JAMA Psychiatry.
  88. Bertuccio R, Runion M (2020) Considering Grief in Mental Health Outcomes of COVID-19. Psychological Trauma, Theory, Research, Practice and Policy 22(s1): s87-s89.
  89. Eisma M, Tamminga A, Smid G, Boelen P (2021) Acute grief after deaths due to COVID-19, natural causes and unnatural causes: An empirical comparison. Journal of Affective Disorders 278: 54-56.
  90. Gesi C, Carmassi C, Cerveri G. Carpita B, Cremone IM, et al. (2020) Complicated Grief: What to Expect After the Coronavirus Pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry 11.
  91. Goveas J, Shear M (2020) Grief and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Older Adults. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
  92. Ahmad T, Haroon-Baig M, Hui J (2020) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic and Economic Impact. Pak J Med Sci 36(COVID19-S4): S73-S78.
  93. Ashraf BN (2020) Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 100371.
  94. Baldwin R, Weder di Mauro B (2020) Economics in the Time of COVID-19. London: Center for Economic Policy Research Press.
  95. Blustein D, Guarino PA (2020) Work and Unemployment in the Time of COVID-19: The Existential Experience of Loss and Fear. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 002216782093422.
  96. Blustein D, Duffy R, Ferreira JA, Cohen-Scali V, Cinamon RG, et al. (2020) Unemployment in the time of COVID-19: A research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior 103436.
  97. Martin A, Markhvida M, Hallegatte S, Walsh B (2020) Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Household Consumption and Poverty. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change.
  98. Corman LC (1993) The role of nutrition in sickness and in health. Medical Clinics of North America 77(4): 711- 724.
  99. Monteiro C (2009) Nutrition and health. The issue is not food, nor nutrients, so much as processing. Public Health Nutrition 12(05): 729.
  100. Fakhry AbdelMassih A, Ghaly R, Amin A, Gaballah A, Kamel A, et al. (2020) Obese communities among the best predictors of COVID-19-related deaths. Cardiovascular Endocrinology & Metabolism 9(3): 102-107.
  101. Martínez-Lorca M, Martínez-Lorca A, Criado-Álvarez J, Armesilla M, Latorre J (2020) The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Validation in Spanish university students. Psychiatry Research 113350.
  102. Fofana N, Latif F, Bilal Bashir MF, Komal B (2020) Fear and Agony of the Pandemic Leading to Stress and mental illness: An Emerging Crisis in the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak. Psychiatry Research 113230.
  103. Bäuerle A, Teufel M, Musche V, Weismüller B, Kohler H, et al. (2020) Increased generalized anxiety, depression and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross- sectional study in Germany. Journal of Public Health.
  104. Fitzpatrick K, Harris C, Drawve G (2020) Fear of COVID-19 and the Mental Health Consequences in America. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy 12(s1): s17-s21.
  105. Fullana M, Hidalgo-Mazzei D, Vieta E, Radua J (2020) Coping behaviors associated with decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Journal of Affective Disorders.
  106. Gao J, Zheng P, Jia Y, Chen H, Mao Y, et al. (2020) Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. Plos One 15(4).
  107. Huang Y, Zhao N (2020) Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a web-based cross- sectional survey. Psychiatry Research 112954.
  108. Husky M, Kovess-Masfety V, Swendsen J (2020) Stress and anxiety among university students in France during Covid-19 mandatory confinement. Comprehensive Psychiatry 152191.
  109. Islam M, Ferdous M, Potenza M (2020) Panic and generalized anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic among Bangladeshi people: An online pilot survey early in the outbreak. Journal of Affective Disorders 276: 30- 37.
  110. Pfefferbaum B, North C (2020) Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine 383: 510-512.
  111. Rehman U, Shahnawaz MG, Khan NH, Kharshiing KD, Khursheed M, et al. (2020) Depression, Anxiety and Stress Among Indians in Times of Covid-19 Lockdown. Community Mental Health Journal.
  112. Salari N, Hosseinian-Far A, Jalali R, Vaisi-Raygani A, Rasoulpoor S, et al. (2020) Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta- analysis. Globalization and Health 16(1).
  113. Wong L, Hung C, Alias H, Lee T (2020) Anxiety symptoms and preventive measures during the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan. BMC Psychiatry 20(1).
  114. Deng J, Zhou F, Hou W, Silver Z, Wong CY, Chang O, et al. (2020) The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances in COVID-19 patients: a meta- analysis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
  115. Roy D, Tripathy S, Kar S, Sharma N, Verma S, et al. (2020) Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Journal of Psychiatry.
  116. Shanafelt T, Ripp J, Trockel M (2020) Understanding and Addressing Sources of Anxiety Among Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA.
  117. World Health Organization (2020) Understanding the infodemic and misinformation in the fight against COVID-19.
  118. Posetti J, Bontcheva K (2020) Deciphering misinformation about COVID-19. France: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO.
  119. Bendau A, Petzold MB, Pyrkosch L, Mascarell- Maricic L, Betzler F, et al. (2020) Associations between COVID-19 related media consumption and symptoms of anxiety, depression and COVID-19 related fear in the general population in Germany. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.
  120. Nekliudov N, Blyuss O, Cheung K, Petrou L, Genuneit J, et al. (2020) Excessive Media Consumption About COVID-19 is Associated with Increased State Anxiety: Outcomes of a Large Online Survey in Russia. J Med Internet Res 22(9).
  121. Alonso J, Liu Z, Evans-Lacko S, Sadikova E, Sampson N, et al. (2018) Treatment gap for anxiety disorders is global: Results of the World Mental Health Surveys in 21 countries. Depression and Anxiety 35(3): 195-208.
  122. Auerbach RP, Mortier P, Bruffaerts R, Alonso J, Benjet C, et al. (2018) WHO World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Project: Prevalence and distribution of mental disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 127(7): 623-638.
  123. Charlson F, van Ommeren M, Flaxman A, Cornett J, Whiteford H, et al. (2019) New WHO prevalence estimates of mental disorders in conflict settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet.
  124. Hossain M, Purohit N, Sultana A, Ma P, J McKyer E, (2020) Prevalence of mental disorders in South Asia: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta- analyses. Asian Journal of Psychiatry 102041.
  125. Twenge J, Joiner T (2020) US Census Bureau‐assessed prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2019 and during the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic. Depression and Anxiety.
  126. Ashby N (2020) The Impact of the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Unhealthy Eating in Populations with Obesity. Obesity.
  127. Cénat J, Blais-Rochette C, Kokou-Kpolou C, Noorishad P, Mukunzi J, et al. (2020) Prevalence of Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Psychological Distress among Populations Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychiatry Research 113599.
  128. Sakib N, Bhuiyan A, Hossain S, Al Mamun F, Hosen I, et al. (2020) Psychometric Validation of the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.
More from this journal

Cite this article

BibTeX
APA
RIS
@article{chavezvaldez2025,
  title   = {Post-Truth Reality: Worldwide Infodemia and Mental Health Concerns during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Scenarios},
  author  = {Chavez-Valdez SM},
  journal = {Mental Health & Human Resilience International Journal},
  year    = {2025},
  volume  = {9},
  number  = {1},
  doi     = {10.23880/mhrij-16000262}
}
Chavez-Valdez SM (2025). Post-Truth Reality: Worldwide Infodemia and Mental Health Concerns during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Scenarios. Mental Health & Human Resilience International Journal, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.23880/mhrij-16000262
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Post-Truth Reality: Worldwide Infodemia and Mental Health Concerns during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Scenarios
AU  - Chavez-Valdez SM
JO  - Mental Health & Human Resilience International Journal
PY  - 2025
VL  - 9
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.23880/mhrij-16000262
ER  -