English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Generally during pandemic, mental health needs are largely neglected and patients with psychiatric illness are given less medical care as majority of the health professionals are involved in acute management of the pandemic. In this study we wanted to determine the difference between stress and anxiety in patients with bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) and the general population. METHODS It was a cross sectional study and convenient sampling was used. The study was conducted in Government Hospital for Mental Care, Visakhapatnam. The study included 60 participants of whom 30 participants are patients with bipolar affective disorder who were currently in remission and 30 participants were from general population and were evaluated using semi structured proforma for sociodemographic data and perceived stress scale to assess perceived stress, Hamilton anxiety rating scale to assess anxiety. Results were analyzed statistically. RESULTS The results showed statistically significant difference in severity of perceived stress and anxiety among patients with bipolar affective disorder and the general population. CONCLUSIONS Our study results re-emphasize the fact that there should be an increased awareness about patients with psychiatric illness like bipolar affective disorder as targets for care with regular psychiatric intervention during Covid-19 pandemic. With our study, we want to re-iterate the fact that patients with psychiatric illness experience exacerbation of symptoms during infectious disease epidemic. Patients diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder can also have comorbid anxiety disorder, even after treating the mood disorder episode. Residual anxiety may persist and in times of infectious diseases epidemic, these anxiety symptoms will exacerbate leading to poor quality of life and non-compliance to medication. With our study we want to recommend that proper care and regular follow-up schedules have to be formulated by mental health professionals and mental health institutions to reduce and prevent exacerbation of symptoms and improve treatment compliance which in turn helps in preventing relapse of bipolar affective disorder. KEYWORDS Bipolar Affective Disorder, Perceived Stress, Anxiety, Covid-19