ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The study aimed to assess the severity of symptoms of anxiety and depression in children with previously diagnosed psychiatric disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. METHODS: Online questionnaires were used to investigate three groups of subjects: patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, primary school pupils, and children from children's homes. A total of 167 children with their parents or guardians participated in the study. In addition to basic statistics, a multidimensional Centroid Class Principal Component Analysis (CCPCA) model was used. RESULTS: It was found that the strongest fear of the coronavirus was experienced by children from children's homes, while the most severe depressive symptoms and state anxiety were observed among patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Parental care by assisting with school education and lack of close contact with other people (less than two metres) at parents/guardians' work had the most potent protective effect in reducing the fear of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for further research in children and adolescents to develop effective strategies for protecting their mental well-being when faced with social isolation or disease.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Mental Disorders , Adolescent , Anxiety/diagnosis , Anxiety/psychology , Child , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/psychology , Humans , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Mental Health , PandemicsABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic - in addition to its many widely described negative consequences - has created achallenge for the mental health care system in every country, including Poland to safely manage psychiatric disorders in addition to preventing and treating COVID-19. In Poland, online mental health services are provided for the outpatients. Still there are patients with severe psychiatric disorders who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and need to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Medical University of Warsaw was appointed by local authorities to hospitalize childrenwith mental disorders and with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. This created an urgent need to adapt our department for treating COVID-19 infected patients. As far as we know no guidelines for psychiatric hospitals management during the COVID-19 pandemic are available in English. In this manuscript, we present our guidelines regarding safe management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Medical University of Warsaw.