Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Delta State University students, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a substantial psychological burden among students. This study aimed at evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 on the mental health of university students and determining the prevalence of anxiety and depression. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study utilized an online questionnaire sent to students in the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Delta State University after ethical approval. The Generalized Anxiety and Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences and expressed using descriptive statistics and percentages. An independent t-test was used to determine the gender differences in the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores while Pearson's correlation was used to establish a relationship between these scores with age. RESULTS: The 259 respondents comprised 118, 45.6% males and 141, 54.4% females with an average age of 21.50±2.04 years. The majority (149, 57.5%) were aged 21-25 years. The scores did not show significant differences in age and gender. Moderate to severe anxiety and depression was established in 22.4% and 28.2% of the respondents respectively. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the prevalence of anxiety and depression due to the pandemic bears no relationship with age and gender. This is however different from previous reports due to the differences in the sample size, resource setting, timing of the study, and the courses the students studied.

Intracranial hemorrhage in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence suggests that a subset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients may present with or develop cerebrovascular disease during the course of hospitalization. Whereas ischemic stroke in COVID-19 patients has been well described, data on intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in these patients is still limited. We, therefore, conducted a rapid systematic review of current scientific literature to identify and consolidate evidence of ICH in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: A systematic search of literature was conducted between November 1, 2019, and August 14, 2020, on PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) to identify eligible studies. RESULTS: A total of 23 studies describing ICH in 148 COVID-19 patients were included. The pooled incidence of ICH in COVID-19 patients was 0.7% (95% CI 0.5-0.9), with low levels of inter-study heterogeneity observed (I2 = 33.6%, Cochran's Q = 12.05, p = 0.149). Most of the patients were elderly male patients (65.8%) with comorbidities, the most common being systemic hypertension (54%). Hemorrhage involving multiple cranial compartments was reported in 9.5% of cases. Single compartments were involved in the rest, with intraparenchymal hemorrhage (IPH) being the most common variety (62.6%) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) the least common (1.4%). Half of these patients were on some form of anticoagulation. Overall, the mortality rate in the COVID-19 patients with ICH was about 48.6%. CONCLUSION: Although relatively uncommon among COVID-19 patients, ICH is associated with a high mortality rate. Early identification of patients at risk of developing ICH, particularly with comorbid conditions and on anticoagulant therapy, may be important to improve outcomes.