Abstract
The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection has become one of the most significant global social shocks in the past decade. It influenced the lifestyle of many people, including those with mental disorders. To compare the psychopathological structure of psychotic states in young patients (up to 40 years old) with first-episode psychosis before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted at the First psychotic episode clinic of the Mental-health clinic No. 1 n.a. N.A. Alexeev, Moscow, Russia. In total, 66 patients were enrolled, who met the inclusion criteria: first-in-life admission to a mental healthcare unit that occurred during the spring of 2019 (control group) or spring 2020 (experimental group), diagnosis on admission that belonged to the group "Acute and transient psychotic disorders" (F23.XX) of ICD-10. Patients with a disability or concurrent somatic or neurologic conditions were excluded from the study. Assessment of clinical and psychopathological characteristics with the allocation of the leading syndrome within the psychotic state, psychometric assessment according to the PANSS scale was carried out, the above indicators were compared between the experimental and control group. We observed statistically insignificant increase in the rates of affective and catatonic subtypes of psychoses, a decrease in the rate of the delusional subtype of paranoid syndrome. PANSS scores differed significantly for different clinical subtypes of psychoses, although the differences between the experimental and control groups showed no statistical significance. Additionally, in spring 2020, a considerable decrease in the total number of hospitalizations was revealed. The differences in the clinical and psychopathological structure of psychotic states revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic were statistically insignificant. Additional results of the study may indicate a decrease in the availability of mental healthcare for patients with psychoses, which requires further investigation.
Highlights
The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection has become one of the most significant global social shocks in the past decade
The differences in the clinical and psychopathological structure of psychotic states revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic were statistically insignificant
Additional results of the study may indicate a decrease in the availability of mental healthcare for patients with psychoses, which requires further investigation
Summary
The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection has become one of the most significant global social shocks in the past decade. It influenced the lifestyle of many people, including those with mental disorders. The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection is undoubtedly one of the most significant shocks of recent decades. A number of clinical cases of acute psychoses were described in patients who have experienced a new coronavirus infection[14,15,16] or psychoses whose development could be associated with the psychological impact of an unfavourable epidemic situation.[17,18] Special attention is attracted towards dangerous and potentially lethal cases of catatonia[19], associated with disease itself 20,21 as well as its psychosocial impact.[22,23] Russian researchers have mainly studied various aspects of the pandemic impact on the incidence of nonpsychotic mental disorders.[24,25,26] there is a need to consider fundamentally important questions concerning the prognosis and psychopathological characteristics of psychoses manifested during the coronavirus pandemic
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