ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: We performed a retrospective study from January to May 2020 to establish the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with mental health problems who arrived at an Italian emergency department during the COVID-19 outbreak. We divided the sample into two groups taking as a watershed March 11, when the World Health Organization announced COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Chi-square/t-tests, adjusted p values (Bonferroni method), and regression analysis were performed. Patients who arrived at the emergency department during the lockdown decreased by 56%; showed greater active suicidal ideation, more tension, and more severe psychopathological state; were living alone more frequently; and were taking home treatment mainly based on second-generation antipsychotics. According to our study, it seems that patients with mental disorders have consulted psychiatric services less frequently during the pandemic, but the economic, health, and social distress may be linked with an increase in suicidal risk and the severity of the psychopathological state.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/psychology , Emergency Service, Hospital/statistics & numerical data , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Adult , Aged , COVID-19/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Mental Disorders/therapy , Middle Aged , Pandemics , Retrospective Studies , SARS-CoV-2 , Social Isolation/psychology , Suicidal IdeationABSTRACT
We statistically investigate the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, which became particularly invasive in Italy in March 2020. We show that the high apparent lethality or case fatality ratio (CFR) observed in Italy, as compared with other countries, is likely biased by a strong underestimation of the number of infection cases. To give a more realistic estimate of the lethality of COVID-19, we use the actual (March 2020) estimates of the infection fatality ratio (IFR) of the pandemic based on the minimum observed CFR and analyze data obtained from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, a good representation of a "laboratory" case-study from an isolated system in which all the people have been tested. From such analyses, we derive more realistic estimates of the real extent of the infection as well as more accurate indicators of how fast the infection propagates. We then isolate the dominant factors causing the abnormal severity of the disease in Italy. Finally, we use the death count-the only data estimated to be reliable enough-to predict the total number of people infected and the interval of time when the infection in Italy could end.