ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of individuals, particularly young adults. Using the ‘strength and difficulty questionnaire 17+ extended version', we studied the severity of psychological problems and the resultant distress in young adults;the relationship between the ‘difficulty' and ‘impact' scores;and the effect of distress in terms of a number of day-to-day activities affected during a pandemic. Data was collected from 743 college/university students (December 2020-February 2021) in India. Descriptive, relative frequencies, and nonparametric tests are applied here. Females were facing more psychological behavioral problems as compared to males as the p-value is less than 0.001. Males with age<20 years were least affected by COVID-19. Day-to-day activities are affected by almost 45% of young adults because of distress. ‘difficulty' and ‘impact' severity bands were significantly different from the previous standard proportions. No significant association was there between ‘difficulty' and ‘impact' scores (p-value<0.001). 53% of those contracting COVID-19 had severe distress as against 45% of those who did not. 46% of the respondents were in the ‘abnormal' category and 59 out of 327 were facing 'a great deal' problems in more than two areas. © 2023, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Department of psychiatry, Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune was involved since beginning in addressing the issues of mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic and conducting research. The department collaborated with various agencies including government of India (GOI) in their outreach activities. Col Jyoti Prakash, Professor Psychiatry, AFMC, Pune had an honour of running a Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) made COVID hospital in Bihar. Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to GOI, had selected our department to collaborate with C-DAC (Centre for development of advanced computing) &NIMHANS towards creation of 'National Digital Wellness Program' delivered over smart phones-MANAS-Mental health And Normalcy Augmentation System for YoungISTAN-Young Indians: Smart, Talented &Natural. Project MANAS is in progress. The department conducted research on mental health impact on general population, Healthcare workers, COVID patients and their families. Last but not the least, we have managed mental health issues including grief arising during the pandemic. This symposium aims to highlight myriad mental health challenges of COVID 19 and aftermath. The symposium will cover COVID-19 mental health impact, administrative role, shades of grief and positive mental health by four speakers.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has had adverse psychological impact on the general population. Most surveys published till date are online questionnaires targeting general population/health care providers. There is lack of data on the psychological impact of disease on newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. METHODS: The study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital, actively involved in the management of COVID patients. Newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients who had presented to the outpatient COVID care clinic were interviewed face to face by an interviewer using 'Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R)', a validated and universally accepted research questionnaire. RESULTS: Most of the respondents were males (83.2%), mean age: 40.8 years. 31.7% were graduates and 58.5% were actively employed. Fever (57.4%), cough (37.6%), and progressive breathlessness (08.9%) were the three most common clinical symptoms. The mean score on 'IES-R' was 31.8. 30.7% respondents had suffered 'severe' psychological impact, 30.7% had 'minimal' impact. 19.8% and 1.8% had 'mild' and 'moderate' psychological impact respectively. On linear regression analysis, increasing age had statistically significant corelation with increasing scores on 'IES-R scale' (p = 0.004). Educational qualifications of the patient had negative corelation (Pearson correlation=- 0.117) while none of the clinical parameters had any statistically significant correlation with the patients' psychological impact scores. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 patients are at an increased risk of suffering from disease-related adverse psychological impact. Certain risk groups especially like the elderly need close follow-up for early diagnosis and management. Future studies may be required to assess and manage 'post-traumatic stress disorder' that may arise in the aftermath of pandemic.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Health-care workers (HCWs) in COVID-19 pandemic have faced the major impact in providing care to infected persons. Most of the studies on mental health impact among HCW have not incorporated paramedical staff. Furthermore, they have not compared psychological morbidity among HCW on the basis of high COVID exposure (HCE) and low COVID exposure (LCE). To address the above gap, this study aimed at evaluating mental health impact among HCW and its associated risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutive 200 HCWs each in the HCE and LCE groups (between the age group of 18 and 60 years) were enrolled from two tertiary care hospitals providing COVID-19 treatment from August 1, 2020. After collection of sociodemographic data, participants were administered Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale. RESULTS: The difference in stress, depression, and anxiety symptom scores between the HCE and LCE groups was not statistically significant. Multiple regression analysis revealed that female sex was associated with higher scores in all the three domains. The effect remained significant even after adjusting for effect of other risk factors. CONCLUSION: HCE or LCE was associated with similar impact in terms of stress, depression, and anxiety among HCWs. Female HCWs had a higher prevalence of stress, depression, and anxiety. Doctors, nurses, and paramedics had a similar prevalence of stress, depression, and anxiety when odds were adjusted.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pandemics have been associated with widespread psychological distress in the normal population due to quarantine and lockdown, however there are only few studies on psychiatric symptoms in COVID infected patients and their families. This study was planned to assess the depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms in individuals and their families infected with COVID19, during current pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted on hospitalised, COVID infected patients and their immediate family members. Ninety-three, COVID patients and fifty-four family members were studied through Google forms which contained socio-demographic proforma and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS21). Collected data was tabulated to assess depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in the given population and study their relation with various sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: Almost one-third of the sample showed increased score on depression and anxiety subscales and one-fifth on stress subscales. 30-45% of the family members studied had higher score on either of the subset. There was also a high correlation between the scores of depression, anxiety and stress subset in the study sample. CONCLUSION: This study, reflects high magnitude of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in these patients and their families which alert us to the need for definitive interventions in these affected individuals.
ABSTRACT
Background: India was placed under "lockdown" since March 25, 2020, to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with this unprecedented situation, many individuals reported mounting apprehensions and some sought medical relief of anxiety. This study was carried to assess the impact of anxiety on COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on the general public (18-65 years of age) and to assess its correlates. Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted during lockdown. Using a survey form, a link was circulated using social media and E-mail. The survey included bilingual informed consent, sociodemographic data, characteristics specific to lockdown, and a self-rating anxiety scale. The survey link was circulated from April 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020. Results: A total of 987 responses were collected and analyzed. The study revealed minimal-to-moderate anxiety in 28.5%, marked-to-severe anxiety in 3.3%, and extreme anxiety in 0.1% of the participants. Anxiety scores were significantly correlated with younger age, students, currently employed, male gender, and lower income. Conclusions: The current survey indicates that 31.9% are experiencing significant anxiety due to lockdown and COVID-19 pandemic. Younger age, students, currently employed, male gender, and lower income are associated with higher anxiety. These findings suggest that there is a need of expanding the mental health services in society during and immediately after the pandemic situation.