Rates and correlates of post-traumatic stress disorder and symptoms during the immediate onset of COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of patients from an outpatient psychiatric clinic in Turkiye.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the traumatic stress levels, participants demonstrating higher than post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cutoff, thus PTSD possibility, levels, and related factors of patients who felt the need to apply to the outpatient clinic for the 1st time during the first period of the outbreak of the pandemic as a traumatic event, when many psychiatry outpatient clinics were mostly closed to face-to-face admissions. In our research, we targeted three objectives. First, we evaluated PTSD as indicated with measure cutoff points and post-traumatic stress symptom (PTSS) rates among the individuals who were admitted to an outpatient psychiatric clinic for the 1st time, 3 months after the first COVID-19 case was reported in Turkiye. Second, we investigated the relationship between PTSS and PTSD cutoff with anxiety, stress, depression, hopelessness, fear of COVID-19, and disability levels. Third, we aimed to explore the sociodemographic data and risk factors related to PTSD cutoff and PTSS controlling levels of disability, hopelessness, fear of COVID-19, anxiety, depression, and stress. METHODS: For our study, a total number of 85 cases were recruited. Post-traumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCS) were administered to each patient. RESULTS: The rates of possible PTSD and PTSSs were found to be 25.9% and 88.2%. The majority of participants were women (65.9%) who have been presenting complaints with anxiety symptoms (60.1%) and social media users (74.1%). The mean DASS-21 all subscales (anxiety, depression, and stress) (p<0.01), BHS (p<0.01), FCS (p=0.03), and SDS family life/home responsibilities subscale (p<0.01) scores of PTSD cutoff subgroup (n=22) were higher than non-PTSD group (n=63). We observed significant positive correlations between the FCS scores and DASS-21 anxiety subscale (p<0.01), SDS family life/home responsibilities and social life/leisure activities subscales (p<0.05), and PDS symptom severity subscale (p<0.01) scores. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that a COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic life event that causes high rates of possible PTSD, PTSS, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and disability and leads to admissions to psychiatric outpatient clinics.

Mental health and protective measures of community and healthcare workers in the Covid-19 pandemic

Pandemic is an epidemic that exceeds international borders and generally affects people around the world. In addition to economic and psychosocial problems, pandemic causes additional mental health problems such as anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia, anger, fear and denial. A pandemic is an epidemic occuring on a scale that crosses international boundaries, usually affecting people on a worldwide scale. The pandemic causes additional mental health problems such as anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia, anger, fear, and denial besides economic and psychosocial problems. However physical and mental health of medical staff is affected, who carry major responsibilities both socially and professionally. With this compilation, we aimed to emphasize the importance of the psychological needs of both healthcare workers and the community these days that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of the world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Turkish) Pandemi gibi tum dunyayi etkileyen olumlere neden olan salginlarda, toplumun psikososyal, ekonomik ve fiziksel kayiplardan etkilenmesinin yanisira;topluma en onde ruhsal ve fiziksel hizmet sunan saglik calisanlari en cok etkilenen grup olmaktadir. Kuresel tehdit olusturan bu tur salginlar;toplumda endise, depresyon, olum kaygisi, yakinlarini kaybetme endisesi, belirsizlige tahammulsuzlik gibi psikiyatrik belirtilere, salgin nedeniyle karantina uygulamalarinin olusturdugu psikososoyal ve ekonomik gucluklere neden olmaktadir. Toplumun yanisira, tum toplumu sosyoekonomik ve ruhsal yonden etkileyen pandemilerde;buyuk olcude sosyal ve is sorumlulugu yuklenen saglik calisanlarinin ruhsal sagligi da etkilenmektedir. Bu nedenle yazimizda;2020 yilinda tum dunyayi etkisi altina alan COVID-19 pandemisininin, toplum ve saglik calisanlari uzerindeki ruhsal etkisini ve alinabilecek koruyucu onlemleri derlemeyi planladik. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)