Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2022 | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Research
Mental health status of COVID-19 survivors: a cross sectional study
Authors:
Munam Raza Jafri, Anna Zaheer, Sahar Fatima, Taiba Saleem, Atif Sohail
Published in:
Virology Journal
|
Issue 1/2022
Login to get access
Abstract
Background
Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a communicable disease caused by a virus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemics are associated with the high level of mental stress. In many countries, general people reported the high level of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder during recent a pandemic. This study aims to investigate the mental health status of people who survived through this alarming situation of COVID-19.
Methods
In this study, seventy individuals (either gender) between the age of 18–60 years, who contracted COVID-19 previously and then recovered as indicated by negative PCR results, were included. Data was collected by using three tools: impact of event scale (IES-R), patient health questionnaire-9(PHQ-9) and corona anxiety scale (CAS). People with other systemic/mental disorders, ongoing malignancies, upper/lower motor disorders and inability to give consent were excluded from the study.
Results
Mean age of participants was 26.29 + 11.79. All the 70 responders suffered from COVID-19. Among these 23 (32.9%) were asymptomatic and 47(67.1%) had common symptoms related to COVID-19 53 (75.7%) responders also had symptoms post-recovery. Most of the people who suffered COVID-19 had mild depression. Twenty-nine participants (41.4%) reported the highest impact of this traumatic event on their mental health. After suffering from COVID-19, 74.3% reported no anxiety as measured through corona anxiety scale (CAS).
Conclusion
High level of post-traumatic stress was seen among participants who recovered from COVID-19, especially those patients who were symptomatic. Mild depression and anxiety were also noted among them.