Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Sep 20, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 20, 2021 - Nov 15, 2021
Date Accepted: Jan 5, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Impact of long COVID-19 on mental health: a traumatic event
ABSTRACT
Background:
The psychological impact of COVID-19 can be substantial. However, knowledge about long-term psychological outcomes in patients with COVID-19 is scarce.
Objective:
We aimed to reveal symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and symptoms of anxiety and depression up to six months after the onset of COVID-19 related symptoms in patients with confirmed COVID-19 and persistent complaints.
Methods:
Demographics, symptoms of PTSD (Trauma Screening Questionnaire, TSQ ≥6 points) and symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS ≥8 points) were assessed at three and six months after the onset of COVID-19 related symptoms in members of online long COVID-19 peer support groups.
Results:
Data of 239 patients with confirmed COVID-19 (82.8% female; median (IQR) age: 50 (39-56) years) were analyzed. At 3 months follow-up, 37.2% of the patients had symptoms of PTSD, 35.6% had symptoms of anxiety and 46.9% had symptoms of depression, which remained high at 6 months follow-up (26.8%, p≤0.05; 34.7%, p>0.05 and 40.6%, p≤0.05, versus 3 months, respectively). TSQ scores and HADS anxiety and depression scores were strongly correlated at 3 and 6 months follow-up (r=0.63-0.71, p≤0.001). Symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression were comparable between hospitalized (n=62) and non-hospitalized (n=177) patients.
Conclusions:
A substantial percentage of patients with confirmed COVID-19 and persistent complaints reported symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and/or depression three months after the onset of COVID-19 related symptoms which merely improved over time. Healthcare professionals need to be aware of these psychological complications and intervene on time in post-COVID-19 patients with persistent complaints. Clinical Trial: Netherlands Trial Register NTR8705; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/8705
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.