The psychopathological impact of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic on subjects suffering from different mental disorders: An observational retrospective study

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 infection causes a pulmonary disease (COVID-19) which spread worldwide generating fear, anxiety, depression in the general population as well as among subjects affected by mental disorders. Little is known about which different psychopathological changes the pandemic caused among individuals affected by different psychiatric disorders, which represents the aim of the present study. Specific psychometric scales were administered at three time points: T0 as outbreak of pandemic, T1 as lockdown period, T2 as reopening. Descriptive analyses and linear regression models were performed. A total of 166 outpatients were included. Overall, psychometric scores showed a significant worsening at T1 with a mild improvement at T2. Only psychopathology in schizophrenia (SKZ) patients and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms did not significantly improve at T2. Subjects affected by personality disorders (PDs) resulted to be more compromised in terms of general psychopathology than depressed and anxiety/OC ones, and showed more severe anxiety symptoms than SKZ patients. In conclusion, subjects affected by PDs require specific clinical attention during COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the worsening of SKZ and OC symptoms should be strictly monitored by clinicians, as these aspects did not improve with the end of lockdown measures. Further studies on larger samples are needed to confirm our results. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04694482

First access to mental health services during COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter study

“…In the existing literature, studies carried out in outpatient psychiatric settings always include patients already known by the mental health services. These studies highlighted the relevant impact of pandemic in groups of patients with specific diagnosis, such as personality disorders, OCD and schizophrenia ( Caldiroli A et al, 2022 ).…”

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health behavior and psychopathology in patients with psychotic disorders

“…The results of the studies on the changes in the psychotic symptoms and relapsed cases are also contradictory. Some studies reported that the symptoms remained stable and the recurrence rate did not change during the pandemic period ( Mutlu and Anıl Yağcıoğlu, 2021 ; Pinkham et al, 2020 ; Riblet et al, 2021 ), while others reported increases in the symptoms and recurrence rates ( Caldiroli et al, 2022 ; Fleischmann et al, 2021 ; Muruganandam et al, 2020 ).…”

Unrealistic pessimism and obsessive‐compulsive symptoms during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Two longitudinal studies

“…For example, increased emphasis on the importance of frequent, prolonged, and ritualized handwashing and information in the media about the survivability of viruses on surfaces and thus increased mental attention paid to washing and hygiene issues have been discussed as possible factors influencing the worsening of OCS (Banerjee, 2020 ). However, studies have shown mixed results, with some studies reporting a worsening of OCS in their participants (Abba‐Aji et al., 2020 ; Caldiroli et al., 2022 ; Fontenelle et al., 2021 ; Højgaard, Duholm, Nissen, Jensen, & Thomsen, 2021 ; Jelinek, Göritz, Miegel, Moritz, & Kriston, 2021 ; Jelinek, Moritz, Miegel, & Voderholzer, 2021 ; Jelinek, Voderholzer, et al., 2021 ; Kaveladze, Chang, Siev, & Schueller, 2021 ; Khosravani, Aardema, Samimi Ardestani, & Sharifi Bastan, 2021 ; Prestia et al., 2020 ) and other studies not (Chakraborty & Karmakar, 2020 ; Quittkat et al., 2020 ; Schwartz‐Lifshitz et al., 2021 ).…”