Psychiatric impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 on previously mentally healthy survivors

Abstract

Abstract Background The prolonged psychiatric disorders rate following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could surpass that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as well as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as a result of variations in viral disease treatment as well as societal circumstances throughout the outbreaks. This work aimed to investigate the COVID-19 prolonged psychiatric effects on survivors without psychiatric diseases before infection. Methods This cross-sectional research was conducted on 1254 patients of which 700 patients (55.8%) were positive for psychiatric complications based on the general health (GHQ-28) questionnaire and 554 patients (44.1%) were negative, aged above 18 years old who had been infected with COVID19 (PCR swab confirmed) and recovered since less than 6 months without previous history of any psychiatric disease. Results Smoking, medical comorbidities, hospitalization, and cortisone in treatment were significantly higher in GHQ-28 positive than GHQ-28 negative ( p < 0.05). Psychiatric disorders and Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) grades showed a significant association between smoking and hospitalization and Taylor Manifest Anxiety scales and smoking, hospitalization, and treatment with cortisone). Smoking, medical comorbidities, hospitalization, and cortisone in treatment were the most significant predictors of positive GHQ-28. However, multivariate analysis demonstrated that medical comorbidities, hospitalization, and cortisone in treatment were the best independent predictors of GHQ-28 positive ( p = 7.055, p = 0.007, p = 0.043, p = 0.047, respectively). Conclusions COVID-19 cases without pre-existing psychological disorders exhibited a significant increase in psychiatric disorders occurrence 6 months following recovery. Anxiety disorders represented the predominant mental diagnoses documented.