Investigation of the mental health of patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To evaluate the status and influencing factors of the mental health of patients with COVID-19 during isolation treatment.@* Methods@#From February 2nd to 16th, 2020, 106 COVID-19 patients were anonymously investigated for their mental health status using onlinequestionnaires (including Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-15 scales). The patients were from Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College ofHuazhong University of Science and Technology. After data processing, SPSS19.0 was used for statistical analysis.@* Results@#Of the 106 COVID-19 patients, 46 were male and 60 were female, with an age of (35.90±11.92) years. The detection rates of depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms in those patients were 49.06% (52/106) , 56.60% (60/106) and 69.81% (74/106) respectively. The severe cases of depression (scale score greater than 19) , anxiety (scale score greater than 14) and somatic symptoms (scale score greater than 14) accounted for 9.43% (10/106) , 15.09% (16/106) and 20.75% (22/106) respectively. In addition, 67.92% (72/106) of the patients had sleep problems, 24.53% (26/106) had self-mutilating or suicidal thoughts, and 28.30% (30/106) required psychological counseling—all of which were at significantly higher percentages than those of the general population. Only 39.62% (42/106) of the examined patients had neither deression nor anxiety. By using the non-parametric test of rank conversion for analysis, and the results showed that both married patients and nucleic-acid-positive patients had more severe depressions, and both married patients and anoxemicpatients had more severe somatic symptoms.@*Conclusion@#This mental health assessment showed that depression, anxiety, and various somatic symptoms exist among the COVID-19 patients, and therefore early identification and intervention should be conducted to avoid extreme events such asself-mutilating or suicidal impulsivity, with a greater focus on both married patients and patients with severe symptoms.