Question

 

PHC 273

During COVID-19 people experienced several symptoms of mental health disorders (anxiety, depression, stress, and insomnia). Refer to the previous research studies and answer the following:

• Give examples of mental health disorders during the self-isolation period.
• Identify the groups at high risk to develop severe symptoms of mental health disease.

 

Answer 1

The world is currently in a gruesome state due to a pandemic disaster caused due to the novel Corona virus COVID-19. It started of in Wuhan and now the entire world is in it's hands. Apart from the known primary cause of death (acute primary distress syndrome) , reports have said that patients show neurological symptoms due to the infection directly and indirectly. This is because apart from the lungs the virus could affect other organs like the brain which causes massive cytokine response in certain individuals directly.

The major psychiatric symptoms include post traumatic stress symptoms(PTSS), post traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) ,anxiety and depression . The symptoms are seen after 1 month or 1 year or even 30 months and longer. It even affects the Frontline Healthcare workers which makes it even more devastating. Indirectly the following disorders could affect people in self isolation which might even result in suicides.

Researches have shown that 96.2% of patients have PTSS and 29.2% have post treatment depression. Patients had worsened preexisting psychiatric conditions also. The medical staff were proved to have more complaints of insomnia , OCD, anxiety and depression compared to others. Other rare disorders are delirium and encephalopathy.

Risk factors for these include living alone, no child, female gender, low educational status (demographic factors), substance abuse, poor sleep, lacking knowledge, previous distressful life events, low family support, friends with covid, Frontline workers like Healthcare workers and police.

The indirect effects in general public are depression and anxiety which makes a negative impact on health care workers. The indirect effects are dream awakening in parents of covid positive children and suicidal thoughts in self isolated individuals who has prexisting psychological condition or who has lack of family support. Further development of vaccines and research would help us to know more about the symptoms and further prevent the spread of this pandemic for the betterment of humanity.