A New Approach for the Diagnosis of Unapparent Psychological Pandemic Amidst Covid 19: A Bibliographic Review

ABSTRACT

Aim - For diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, general anxiety disorder, and other mental disorders, using salivary biomarkers as an adjunct diagnostic method will be able to play a major role to avoid misdiagnosis and underrecognition of mental illnesses. Background - According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, roughly 280 million people worldwide suffer from depression that begins with Social Anxiety Disorder or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. According to a study on natural disasters, an estimated 10.00% of people would also have serious psychological difficulties as a result of the ongoing pandemic, such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, or Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Method-A comprehensive literature search was done using various databases like EBSCO, Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Embase from 1937 to 2021. The keywords used for the search were "Generalized anxiety disorder in covid 19", "Post-traumatic stress disorder", "Depression", "Salivary biomarkers AND stress", and "misdiagnosis AND mental illnesses".The articles were selected by the authors on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Clinical significance- Saliva is utilized as a stress indicator since it is secreted by an inherent response controlled by the autonomic nervous system. In future research, the 2 salivary biomarkers might act as an adjunct diagnostic method which will be helpful for early diagnosis as most of the diagnosis of mental illness depends on patients' subjective response. The salivary biomarkers which can be used as an adjunct diagnostic method of mental disorders are Salivary alpha-amylase,Malondialdehyde, Nitrogen, and Oxygen Reactive species, Salivary IgA, Cortisol levels, and G6PD deficiency. Conclusion(s) For the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder which is one of the symptoms of depression and other mental illnesses. In the future, research can be focussed on salivary biomarkers which can be helpful in the early diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder or other mental disorders. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.