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. 2021 Jan:295:113604.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113604. Epub 2020 Nov 28.

Psychiatric morbidity and protracted symptoms after COVID-19

Burç Çağrı Poyraz  1 , Cana Aksoy Poyraz  2 , Yeşim Olgun  1 , Özge Gürel  1 , Sena Alkan  3 , Yusuf Emre Özdemir  3 , İlker İnanç Balkan  3 , Rıdvan Karaali  3
Affiliations

Psychiatric morbidity and protracted symptoms after COVID-19

Burç Çağrı Poyraz et al. Psychiatry Res. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

We investigated the psychiatric symptomatology and the protracted symptoms in patients who had recovered from the acute COVID-19 infection. Two hundred and eighty-four patients completed a web-based or a paper survey on socio-demographic and clinical data. The psychiatric status was assessed using Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and MINI suicidality scale. Patients completed a checklist for the protracted symptoms that were experienced after the acute infection. After a mean of almost 50 days following the diagnosis, 98 patients (34.5%) reported clinically significant PTSD, anxiety, and/or depression, with PTSD being the most common condition reported (25.4%). One hundred and eighteen patients (44.3%) reported one or more protracted symptom(s). Predictors of PTSD symptom severity were the female gender, past traumatic events, protracted symptoms, stigmatization, and a negative view on the COVID-19 pandemic. PTSD symptom severity was the sole independent predictor of the protracted symptoms. Our results suggest that COVID-19 patients are prone to substantial psychological distress in the first few months after the infection. The protracted symptoms were frequent in this period, and these were closely related to the posttraumatic symptoms.

Keywords: Anxiety disorders; COVID-19; Depression; PTSD; Protracted symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere in part or in entirety and is not under consideration by another journal. All study participants provided informed consent, and the study design was approved by the appropriate ethics review board. We have read and understood your journal's policies, and we believe that neither the manuscript nor the study violates any of these. There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

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