Mental Health Status among the Quarantined Population during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study from Western Rajasthan

Abstract

Introduction: Although isolation and quarantine are important measures to curb the exponential growth of the prevailing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but at same time this can impose psychological issues among the affected population and also to their family members. Aims: To evaluate the mental health problems, their severity and associated factors in quarantined population during the COVID19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 207 quarantined subjects at different quarantine centres of Ajmer, associated with JLN Medical College, Ajmer, from August 2020 to October 2020,after getting approval from ethics committee of the centre. All the consenting quarantined subjects who were of age 18 years and above, irrespective of their gender were enrolled in the study. For the assessment of psychiatric morbidity, participants were screened using Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) 6.0.0. Finally, the relevant psychiatric assessment tools like Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D),Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale were applied to assess the severity of the disorders. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship among various clinical variables.The level of significance was considered at p-value <0.05. Results: Majority 85 (41%) subjects belonged to the age group 31-40 years of age. Around 116 (77.3%) participants were male. Around 51 (24.6%) presented moderate depression and 25 (12%) presented with severe depression. Also 182 (87.9%) presented with moderate anxiety. The study showed a statistically significant association between depression/anxiety and substance abuse, insomnia, co-morbidities, suicidal ideation/attempts. Conclusion: The findings of the present study concluded that a significant proportion of the quarantined population suffered from psychological issues. So, the psychological impact of a mandatory quarantine should be weighed more thoughtful and in an evidence based manner.