Liaison Psychiatry During the Peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Description of Referrals and Interventions
Liaison Psychiatry During the Peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Description of Referrals and Interventions
Blog Article
Introduction: The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the coronavirus family, a group of viruses that can cause upper respiratory infections in humans.Among other symptoms, it can present as an asymptomatic infection or as 12n/1200 wella a more severe disease requiring hospitalization.Neuropsychiatric symptoms have been described in the acute phase of the illness and as long-term repercussions.
We describe the characteristics and interventions in those COVID-19 patients referred to our liaison psychiatry service.Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study.This study was carried out within the Department of Psychiatry of Cruces University Hospital (Basque Country, Spain).
Data from each psychiatric consultation within our consultation-liaison service were consecutively obtained for 1 month from March 17 to April 17, 2020.We recruited data regarding clinical and referral characteristics and psychiatric interventions.Results: Of a total of 721 SARS-CoV-2 teal horse blanket hospitalizations, 43 (5.
6%) patients were referred to our psychiatry liaison service.The median age was 61 years old, and 62.8% were women.
The infectious disease department was the most frequent petitioner (37.2%), and the most common reason for referral was patient anxiety (25.6%).
A total of 67.4% of patients received psychological counseling and 55.8% received some pharmacological approach, with a median of 3.
7 visits/calls per patient.In addition, 20.3% needed a medication switch due to potential interactions between psychotropics and drugs used to treat SARS-CoV-2.
Discussion: In our study, up to 5.6% of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalized patients needed a psychiatric evaluation, especially for anxiety and mood symptoms.Psychosocial factors associated with the pandemic, drugs used to treat the infection, or a direct causative effect of the virus may explain our findings.