Evaluation of the clinical characteristic of psychiatric patients who are among the risk groups in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Aim: The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been a major concern for public health worldwide. Traditional medical practices need to be adapted quickly to meet the needs of vulnerable patients due to the COVID-19 outbreak. One of these patient groups is the mentally ill. Although COVID-19 itself affects mental health, this study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients who were previously diagnosed with mental illness. Material and Methods: Patients older than 18 years of age with COVID-19 pneumonia, PCR positive or negative, thoradc CT compatible with COVID-19 pneumonia, and who also had been diagnosed with psychiatric disease between 1 April - 1 October 2020 were included in the study Psychiatric diagnoses of the patients, drugs they used, places they lived, PCR results, CT results, comorbidities, the treatment of COVID-19, and the final status of the patients were evaluated. Results: Between the specified dates, the number of patients with COVID-19 with psychiatric disease was 37 (28.24%) out of 131. The average age of patients with COVID-19 was 56.63 +/- 11.25 years, and the average length of stay in the hospital was 5.57 +/- 1.52 days. There were 35 (94.6%) patients living in a nursing home. There were 26 patients (70.3%) with a previous history of psychiatric illness, and 23 of them (62.2%) had psychotic disorders. During the treatment period, 27 (73.0%) of the patients received multiple pharmacotherapies, and atypical antipsychotic drugs (51.4%) were mostly prescribed. Discussion: As a result, in our study, we determined that living in nursing homes, having a psychiatric disorder, and taking multiple pharmacotherapies due to this psychiatric disorder increase the possibility of getting COVID-19.