PTSD Symptoms and Sleep Quality of COVID-19 Patients During Hospitalization: An Observational Study from Two Centers

Abstract

Background The outbreak of COVID-19 has developed into a pandemic. Data are required that specifically address the psychological consequences in COVID-19 confirmed patients. This study mainly aimed to examine posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and sleep quality among COVID-19 confirmed patients during hospitalization. Methods An observational study was conducted in two designated hospitals in Wuhan, China. Data were collected from 190 patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection between February 10, 2020 and March 13, 2020. Results The mean age of the 190 confirmed patients was 55.7 years (SD = 13.7), of which 96 (50.5%) were female and 88 (46.3%) had family members or acquaintances infected with COVID-19. Lymphocytopenia was presented in 62 (32.6%) patients and 25 (13.2%) patients showed oxygen desaturation. The prevalence of high PTSD symptoms was 22.6% among the 190 patients. The median time from symptom onset to first medical visit and hospitalization was 2 days (IQR, 1–5) and 16 days (IQR, 10–27), respectively. Patients’ PTSD symptoms were positively related to the time from symptom onset to first medical visit ( r = 0.156, p < 0.05) and hospitalization ( r = 0.181, p < 0.01). There were significant correlations between sleep quality and PTSD symptoms ( r = 0.312–0.547, p < 0.01). Conclusion The prevalence of high PTSD symptoms was 22.6% among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Early diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 symptoms are beneficial to infected patients both physically and psychologically. With the recovery of physical symptoms, psychological intervention is desired to promote the trauma recovery in COVID-19 patients.

An explanatory model of depressive symptoms from anxiety, post-traumatic stress, somatic symptoms, and symptom perception: the potential role of inflammatory markers in hospitalized COVID-19 patients

“…Similarly, a previous study conducted in Peru reported the prevalence for depression (12.1%), anxiety (8.4%), and PTSD (10.5%) in health care-workers during the pandemic [ 24 ]. The prevalence reported in systematics reviews indicated higher values than our study showed for depression (45%), anxiety (47%), and PTSD (16 to 22.6%) [ 4 , 69 , 70 ]. These differences among researchers could be explained due to the different socio-demographic compositions, different study designs, and measurement instruments used, which may influence the degree of prevalence.…”

Assessment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Patients Who Recovered from COVID-19

“…122EMJ • September 2023 • Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 above, and 40.2% were engaged in full-time employment. However, the mean age of patients in a study of Sun et al19 was higher as compared with the present study (55.7±13.7 years), with…”

Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety symptoms in COVID-19 outpatients with different levels of respiratory and ventilatory support in the acute phase undergoing three months follow-up

“…These data are in line with part of the previous literature reporting higher levels of psychopathological symptoms in hospitalized patients regardless the disease severity and the kind of clinical treatments received. [20][21][22][23][24][25] Coherently, these findings seem to be an interesting confirmation that psychological effects are not related to the level of pulmonary involvement, rather to the illness experience itself. Although further research is needed, it is reasonable to assume that no differences were unveiled as each disease pathway has involved peculiar stressful risk factors for the individual mental health.…”

“…4 However, other studies did not find any statistically significant correlations between the illness severity and the PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms. [20][21][22][23][24][25] Moreover, an Italian research shown that higher risk of developing Long Covid -defined as the persistence of physical or psychological symptoms for more than four weeks after recovery from the acute phase of the disease -does not depend on the severity of the virus. 8 Therefore, further studies are needed to assess possible differences concerning psychopathological symptoms in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity and undergoing various kind of ventilatory treatments.…”