Mental disorders during the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection: clinical features

Abstract

Objective: to study the clinical features of mental disorders during the COVID-19 epidemic in those who turned to psychiatrist for the first time, as well as in patients with already diagnosed mental illness.Material and methods. We examined 100 patients who turned to psychiatrist due to deterioration of their mental state on the background of a pandemic. Of these, 50 were new cases (1st group; 23 women and 27 men, mean age 34 years) and 50 were cases with previously diagnosed mental disorders (2nd group; 25 women and 25 men, mean age 37 years). 80% of patients of the 1st group, 54% of patients of the 2nd group had coronavirus infection. Anxiety and depressive disorders prevailed in the 1st group, endogenous diseases prevailed in the 2nd group: bipolar affective disorder, recurrent depressive disorder, schizophrenia. The study was conducted by the clinical method using a specially designed map; the severity of depression was assessed using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, and the severity of anxiety was assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.Results. The clinical picture of primary and recurrent depressive episodes after infection was characterized by the presence of motor and associative retardation, severe apathy, hypersomnia and lack of sleep, fatigue, increased appetite, and complaints of impaired attention and memory. Depression in SARS-CoV-2 survivors was characterized by anxiety, anhedonia, irritability, somatic complaints, and hypochondriacal inclusions. Anxiety symptoms in those who were not ill included severe anxiety, reaching agitation, disturbed sleep with frequent awakenings, irritability, somatic complaints, and hypochondriacal fixation on one’s condition. In recovering patients, anxiety was accompanied by control of somatic functions, cognitive impairments, and fear of retention or even intensification.Conclusion. The results obtained indicate the existing differences between the mental disorders that first appeared and worsened during the pandemic, as well as the differences in the structure of the depressive and anxiety syndrome depending on the presence or absence of coronavirus infection.