Psychiatric Disturbances and COVID-19 Infection

Description

International outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV) raised intense attention of specialists worldwide, including psychiatrists. The five stages of shock-denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are experienced by many patients. Coronaphobia is a novel term referring to excessive fear of being infected by coronavirus. The current pandemic necessitates research in different areas of psychiatry, including psychosocial and pharmacological interventions to find evidence-based ways of treatment.

This is a multi-center observational cross-sectional study with consecutive sample that will include patients quarantined due to COVID-19 infection. Adult Patients will be recruited consecutively (convenient sample). Data will be collected from patients in the form of:

Demographic data e.g. Age, Gender, Smoking history, exposure to source transmission Co-morbidities e.g. underlying chronic liver, lung, cardiac or kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension Severity of COVID-19 infection: mild, moderate or severe

Psychiatric assessment of patients:

Patients will be subjected to the following questionnaires:

1. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Arabic version:

It is the most extensively used screening instrument for common mental disorders, in addition to being a more general measure of psychiatric well-being. It asks whether the respondent has experienced a particular symptom or behavior recently. Each item is rated on a four-point scale (less than usual, no more than usual, rather more than usual, or much more than usual); it gives a total score of 36 based on the Likert scoring styles (0-1-2-3). It is a brief, simple, easy to complete, and its application in research settings as a screening tool is well documented. GHQ-12 is a consistent and reliable instrument when used in general population samples.

2. Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale , Arabic version:

A person answers by reflecting on themselves, in order to determine their anxiety level. It is used to separate normal participants from those who would be considered to have pathological anxiety levels. It consists of 50 true or false questions. It has been proven reliable using test-retest reliability. O'Connor, Lorr, and Stafford found there were five general factors in the scale: chronic anxiety or worry, increased physiological reactivity, sleep disturbances associated with inner strain, sense of personal inadequacy, and motor tension .

3. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) , Arabic version:

It is a self-report scale designed to assess symptoms of depression such as sadness, guilt, loss of interest, social withdrawal, increase and decrease in appetite or sleep, suicidal ideation, and other behavioral manifestations of depression over the previous 2 weeks. It can also be used over time to monitor symptoms and to assess response to therapeutic interventions. The inventory is composed of 21 groups of statements on a four-point scale with the patient selecting the one that best matches his or her current state.

4. The Brief-COPE scale , Arabic version :

It is an abbreviated version of the COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) Inventory. It is a self-report questionnaire developed to assess a broad range of coping responses. It is one of the best validated and most frequently used measures of coping strategies. The instrument consists of 28 items that measure 14 factors of 2 items each, which correspond to a Likert scale ranged from 0 - 3.

from each center included in this study there is a person responsible for checking completeness of the collected questionnaires

Statistical Analysis Results will be evaluated statistically by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 (IBM, 2011). Normality of data will be tested by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. To describe the data, frequency (percent) and mean SD will be used. T-test and Pearson correlation test will be used for comparisons and correlations respectively for normally distributed data. Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test will be used for comparisons and correlations respectively for non-normally distributed data. P-values less than 0.05 will be considered statistically significant and 95 % Confidence interval (CI) will be calculated.

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