Mood disorders and suicides during coronavirus pandemic

K Shah,C Trivedi,H Mekala

doi:10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.789

K Shah, C Trivedi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.789

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Abstract

IntroductionThe outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of countless people worldwide. The pandemic has imposed a sense of uncertainty and anxiety, as the world could not predict or prepare for this crisis. It is important to study risk factors, including employment, marital status, and pre-existing medical or psychiatric conditions to effectively handle this pandemic’s mental health impact.ObjectivesWe aim to evaluate factors contributing to the suicides and mood disorders during the coronavirus pandemic.MethodsWe examined MeSH terms “COVID-19” in the context of “Mood Disorders,” “Suicide,” “Suicidal Ideation,” “Assisted or Suicide, Attempted or Suicide,” “Risk Factors.” We identified eight case studies for the qualitative synthesis per the PRISMA guidelines, searching Medline, PubMed, PubMed Central, and PsychInfo databases until August 2020.ResultsWe identified that the population of all age groups and sex are at risk of stress and mental illness due to the pandemic. Several factors are attributed to the increased risk of mood disorders and suicide. Not having pre-existing psychiatric or medical condition is not a protective factor, since suicide was attempted or committed due to external factors such as economic and social.ConclusionsThe pandemic has increased the risk of mood disorder and suicides in the population. Focus should be on the behavioral and psychological first aid to curb stress.

Highlights

The health care workers have extremely high risks of adverse psychological reactions from COVID-19 pandemic
Physicians experienced more stress compared with nurses and paramedical personnel (ES=0.34; 0.64) but were less likely to stigmatize SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals (ES=0.43; 0.41)
The patient claimed that she was the coronavirus and, as such, she was a common topic of conversation in both television and social media, and the reported deaths caused by COVID-19 were her own doing

Summary

Introduction

Cyberchondria involves excessive and uncontrollable online searching of information about a perceived illness. This behavior can cause or maintain distress. Methods: We conducted a Qualtrics Panel survey with 760 cohabitating Canadian couples; in June 2020, participants retrospectively reported on their cyberchondria behavior, general anxiety, and COVID-19 fears during the month of April 2020, while adhering to stay-at-home advisories. Two separate actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) used cyberchondria excessiveness and compulsion to predict generalized anxiety and COVID-19 danger/ contamination fears in the actor and partner. Results: Both cyberchondria excessiveness and compulsion were associated with higher general anxiety and higher COVID-19 danger/contamination fears in the individual (actor effects).

Conclusions

Findings