Anxiety, perceived trauma higher among patients with COVID-19

Compared with other hospital patients, those with COVID-19 reported greater anxiety and perceived trauma, according to findings published in BMC Psychiatry.

“Remembering the experiences of previous coronavirus pandemics rings the warning bell for the need to pay attention to neuropsychiatric disorders,” Alireza Kordi, of Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, and colleagues wrote. “From 2002 to 2003, the SARS outbreak variety of mental problems including obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, somatization and hostility were reported to increase among other disorders. However, there are no clear and reliable statistics about the influence of COVID-19 and its preventive or curative measures on the general population, but what emerged from reviews describe psychological distresses, sleep disturbances and affected well-being to a great extent.”

Kordi and colleagues enrolled 210 people from three hospitals in Tehran to assess OCD using the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), perceived trauma using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), anxiety using the Beck Anxiety Index (BAI) and depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Index (BDI).

Participants were divided into three groups: one including 70 patients with COVID-19, one including 70 patients undergoing orthopedic procedures who did not have COVID-19 and one including 70 working staff members from Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Most of the study participants (85.7%) had at least one OCD-related symptom, including 90% of orthopedic patients and 80% of patients with COVID-19. Pollution-related OCD symptoms were most common, with 67.1% of the cohort experiencing them.

The COVID-19 group had a higher mean score on the IES-R (mean, 23.73) compared with the staff member group (mean, 16.21) and the orthopedic group (mean, 11.51), according to the study. Most of the 7.14% of people who met the benchmark for PTSD and the 3.8% of people who had a greater risk for immune dysfunction within the next 10 years because of their symptoms were in the COVID-19 group; none were in the orthopedic group.

Patients with COVID-19 had significantly higher BAI scores (mean, 17) compared with the staff member group (mean, 9.2) and the orthopedic group (mean, 5.56; both P < .001). About half (50.9%) of people reported few to no anxiety symptoms, most of whom were orthopedic patients. The majority of the most severe anxiety symptoms were among patients in the COVID-19 group.

Although depressive symptoms were more common in the COVID-19 group vs. orthopedic and staff member groups, the differences were not significant when adjusting for demographics and comorbidities.

The findings emphasize the importance of recognizing and treating psychological symptoms in patients with COVID-19, Kordi and colleagues wrote.

“Our study, in line with the literature, confirms that COVID-19 causes mental disturbances such as anxiety and trauma in the infected people compared to the controlled groups, but it is not yet clear whether an organic pathology is underway for the central nervous system involvement or these processes are because of the fear and burden of the disease or both,” they wrote.