ABSTRACT
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with a number of psychiatric problems in patients;however, mental healthcare in these patients does not appear to be adequate. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the extent of psychological care provided to COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital and the most common reasons for psychiatric counseling. Methods: This study examined the electronic medical records of all COVID-19-positive patients admitted to Rasoul-e-Akram hospital in Tehran, Iran, within April 1 and September 30, 2020 (approximately 2200 cases). Results: Psychiatric consultation was requested for 5.45% of admitted patients with COVID-19 diagnosis based on a positive real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. More than half of those who received psychiatric counseling had a previous psychiatric disorder. The most common reason for requesting psychiatric counseling in patients with a previous psychiatric disorder was the patient’s evaluation and management;the most common reason in patients without a psychiatric disorder was agitation and lack of cooperation. The most common diagnosis in patients with a positive history of psychiatric disorder was bipolar disorders (33.9%), followed by opioid use disorder (29%). Adjustment disorder (54%) and delirium (26%) were the most common diagnoses in patients without a history of psychiatric disease. Conclusions: The current study showed that psychiatric counseling in COVID-19 patients was limited to a small number, including those with a positive history of psychiatric illnesses and prominent psychiatric symptoms.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Early diagnosis of 2019-nCoV infection is of great importance and can be challenging in psychiatric patients, especially when a mental illness such as somatoform disorder causes one or more bodily symptoms because the clinical features of this group of patients may be more confusing compared with non-psychiatric patients. On the other hand, treating this infection in psychiatric patients faces some challenges. Case Presentation: A case of the 2019-nCoV infection is reported in a patient who was admitted to the psychosomatic ward with a diagnosis of somatic symptom disorder. The patient had a history of numerous unexplained physical complaints, usually complained of some new physical symptoms when informed of the time of his discharge. Although the possibility of misdiagnosis was high, based on examinations and some paraclinical evaluations, the patient underwent a simultaneous diagnosis of COVID-19. Unlike usual, he did not complain of any new physical complaints after informing of the 2019-nCoV infection and was willing to be discharged. Some diagnostic and therapeutic challenges regarding 2019-nCoV infection in the patient were examined. Conclusions: There are three clinically relevant learning points to be noted from this case report. Firstly, the importance of paying attention to the patient’s complaints in any mental patient, even disorders related to unexplained physical complaints. Secondly, the introduction highlights the differences in the care of patients with COVID-19 between psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients and the need for a multidisciplinary approach. Third, this introduction identifies a crucial diagnostic role for CT thorax in symptomatic patients with suspected COVID-19 because the false-negative rate with RT-PCR COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swabs is high.