Abstract
This cohort study investigates the documentation of psychiatric symptoms in narrative clinical notes as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevalence increased in eastern Massachusetts.
Highlights
The emergence of the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been associated with increased burden of psychiatric symptoms among health care workers and the general public,[1,2] which may increase the risk of longer-term sequelae.[3,4] At the same time, the need for quarantine and the strain on clinical resources may reduce the ability of health systems to respond to such symptoms
Figure illustrates the frequency of COVID-19 testing by week (Figure, A) and the frequency of mentions of psychiatric terms in notes by week (Figure, B and C)
Notes with the presence of psychiatric terms were associated with a reduction in the likelihood of COVID-19 testing for an individual patient, with adjusted odds ratios of 0.80 for anxiety, 0.64 for depression, 0.63 for psychosis, 0.73 for suicide, and 0.40 for violence
Summary
The emergence of the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been associated with increased burden of psychiatric symptoms among health care workers and the general public,[1,2] which may increase the risk of longer-term sequelae.[3,4] At the same time, the need for quarantine and the strain on clinical resources may reduce the ability of health systems to respond to such symptoms. To quantify shifts in psychiatric evaluation associated with COVID-19, we used electronic health records from 2 large academic medical centers and 3 affiliated community hospitals in Massachusetts to investigate the documentation of psychiatric symptoms in narrative clinical notes as COVID-19 activity increased in eastern Massachusetts. Author affiliations and article information are listed at the end of this article
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