What did the study do? Pretty simple. Recruited people who turned up to ED in Milan and tested +ve for COVID-19, then screened them with a bunch of mental health scales ~30 days laterpic.twitter.com/kdGJxKY4fE
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What did the study do? Pretty simple. Recruited people who turned up to ED in Milan and tested +ve for COVID-19, then screened them with a bunch of mental health scales ~30 days laterpic.twitter.com/kdGJxKY4fE
Of these, a large number scored higher than the clinical cut-off on the rating scale that is considered consistent with a diagnosed disorder (i.e. >9 on Beck's Depression Inventory)pic.twitter.com/8nizZxX6tw
Particularly worrying is that the mental health issues were not only related to hospitalization, with people who were managed at home (102 of 402 patients) having similar scores on most scales except MORE anxiety
Unsurprisingly, it seems that people who have previously had psychiatric issues were more likely to experience them due to COVID-19 in this studypic.twitter.com/j1eY707odS
Now, some MAJOR caveats here Firstly, this was a very highly selected patient cohort. These were people sick enough to turn up to ED, get tested, and 75% of the time get admitted Thus, the study has limited information for mild disease
This also isn't a lengthy follow-up. Having ~some symptoms~ of MH disorder 30 days later doesn't mean these people had clinical diagnoses It may be that the scores would improve over time!
It's also hard to dissociate the experiences directly caused by COVID-19 and the broader impact of the pandemic on these mental health issues (something the authors discuss!)pic.twitter.com/gmF4VVBpNW
All that being said, the figures (including the 5% suicidal) are quite startling, and certainly merit further investigation If true, this is something we must know more about and act on quickly
I think the suicidal ideation is a big deal and I think this might underrepresent it-from what I’ve heard it is more like a sudden thought of suicidal behaviour-not fixating on it but very spontaneous-if you have any researchers looking at this please look at suicidal impulse
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