Psychiatric Morbidity Among Patients Recovered from COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Cross Sectional Telephonic Survey

Background: Mental health issues among COVID-19 survivors can have broader public health implications, including decreased quality of life, impaired functional recovery, increased healthcare utilization, and higher mortality rates. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychiatric morbidities among the persons treated and recovered from COVID-19. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional telephonic survey was undertaken in hundred patients infected with COVID-19 pneumonia, treated and discharged from a tertiary care centre. Depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms were assessed using PHQ-2, GAD-2, PTSD screen for DSM-5 respectively. Sleep quality was assessed using single item sleep quality scale. Overall quality of life and health satisfaction was assessed using WHOQOL-BREF. Results: Mean age of study participants is 46.15 years and study sample included 62% of males. Admitted patients had mean CT severity score of 40% lung involvement. On the measures of sleep quality, twelve were having fair range and two participants had poor sleep quality. 24% and 31% of participants had anxiety and depressive symptoms respectively while 14% had symptoms of PTSD. Conclusion: Post covid sequelae is an important concern to be addressed, larger studies are required to assess the psychiatry morbidity accurately. Further sequential assessments would help to delineate the natural course of post covid psychiatric sequalae.