Investigation of the mental health of patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia

Objective To evaluate the status and influencing factors of the mental health of patients with COVID-19 during isolation treatment. Methods From February 2nd to 16th, 2020, 106 COVID-19 patients were anonymously investigated for their mental health status using onlinequestionnaires (including Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-15 scales). The patients were from Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College ofHuazhong University of Science and Technology. After data processing, SPSS19.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results Of the 106 COVID-19 patients, 46 were male and 60 were female, with an age of (35.90±11.92) years. The detection rates of depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms in those patients were 49.06% (52/106) , 56.60% (60/106) and 69.81% (74/106) respectively. The severe cases of depression (scale score greater than 19) , anxiety (scale score greater than 14) and somatic symptoms (scale score greater than 14) accounted for 9.43% (10/106) , 15.09% (16/106) and 20.75% (22/106) respectively. In addition, 67.92% (72/106) of the patients had sleep problems, 24.53% (26/106) had self-mutilating or suicidal thoughts, and 28.30% (30/106) required psychological counseling—all of which were at significantly higher percentages than those of the general population. Only 39.62% (42/106) of the examined patients had neither deression nor anxiety. By using the non-parametric test of rank conversion for analysis, and the results showed that both married patients and nucleic-acid-positive patients had more severe depressions, and both married patients and anoxemicpatients had more severe somatic symptoms. Conclusion This mental health assessment showed that depression, anxiety, and various somatic symptoms exist among the COVID-19 patients, and therefore early identification and intervention should be conducted to avoid extreme events such asself-mutilating or suicidal impulsivity, with a greater focus on both married patients and patients with severe symptoms.