A STUDY TO FIND OUT PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY IN COVID INTENSIVE CARE UNIT PATIENTS POST DISCHARGE

Abstract

The COVID-19 was rst observed in patients in Wuhan, China, in 2019 and it widely infected people across the world thereafter. In March 2020, World Health Organization declared it as a global pandemic. Patients admitted to intensive care units are prone to developing mental illnesses; in addition, patients in the COVID Intensive care unit were at a disadvantage as they had to be kept separated from family members due to the contagious nature of their illness. Moreover, communication with medical staff was difcult due to protective equipment worn by the health care workers as well as oxygen masks and tubes assisting the patients. In this study done in year 2020 to 2022, we tried to nd out the impact that intensive care unit admission in the COVID intensive care unit had on the mental health of the patients. In our study, we found that a signicant number of patients developed psychiatric morbidity after discharge from the COVID intensive care unit.