Impact of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns on the consumption of anxiolytics, hypnotics and antidepressants according to age groups: a French nationwide study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated sanitary measures on mental health, especially among adolescents and young adults. Such a context may raise many concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic long-term psychological effects. An analysis of administrative databases could be an alternative and complementary approach to medical interview-based epidemiological surveys to monitor the mental health of the population. We conducted a nationwide study to describe the consumption of anxiolytics, antidepressants and hypnotics during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the five previous years. METHODS: A historic cohort study was conducted by extracting and analysing data from the French health insurance database between 1 January 2015 and 28 February 2021. Individuals were classified into five age-based classes. Linear regression models were performed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic period on the number of drug consumers, in introducing an interaction term between time and COVID-19 period. RESULTS: Since March 2020, in all five age groups and all three drug categories studied, the number of patients reimbursed weekly has increased compared to the period from January 2015 to February 2020. The youngest the patients, the more pronounced the magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: Monitoring the consumption of psychiatric medications could be of great interest as reliable indicators are essential for planning public health strategies. A post-crisis policy including reliable monitoring of mental health must be anticipated.

Assessment of physicians' resilience level during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We aim to assess physicians' level of resilience and define factors that improve or decrease the resilience level during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physicians from hospitals located in areas with different COVID-19 caseload levels, were invited to participate in a national e-survey between April and May 2020. Study participants were mainly emergency physicians, and anaesthesiologists, infectious disease consultants, and intensive care. The survey assessed participant's characteristics, factors potentially associated with resilience, and resilience using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (RISC-25), with higher scores indicative of greater resilience. Factors associated with the resilience score were assessed using a multivariable linear regression. Of 451 responding physicians involved in the care of COVID-19 patients, 442 were included (98%). Age was 36.1 ± 10.3 years and 51.8% were male; 63% worked in the emergency department (n = 282), 10.4% in anesthesiology (n = 46), 9.9% in infectious disease department (n = 44), 4.8% in intensive care unit (n = 21) or other specialties (n = 49). The median RISC-25 score was at 69 (IQR 62-75). Factors associated with higher RISC scores were anesthesia as a specialty, parenthood, no previous history of anxiety or depression and nor increased anxiety. To conclude, this study is the first to characterize levels of resilience among physicians involved in COVID-19 unit. Our data points to certain protective characteristics and some detrimental factors, such as anxiety or depression, that could be amenable to remediating or preventing strategies to promote resilience and support caregivers in a pandemic.