Past Issues

Objectives: We investigated the prevalence and risk factors of psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among COVID-19 inpatients during the initial and peak coronavirus phase in the largest public sector hospital in India. Methods: With a prospective observational design, we included 761 male and female COVID-19-hospitalized patients. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire, Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used. Results: Totally, 612 males and 149 females had a mean age of 36.68 ± 11.72 (mean ± standard deviation) years. The prevalences of psychological distress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms for the total sample were 12.6%, 19.2%, 19.2%, and 8.4%, respectively. Significant differences existed in the prevalence of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression between the initial coronavirus and peak coronavirus phase (13.7% vs. 11%, χ2 = 9.37 p < 0.01), 22.1% vs. 14.7%, χ2 = 23.04, p < 0.01), 21.04% vs. 16.3%, χ2 = 15.78, p < 0.01) but not in that of PTSD. Except for psychological distress, there was no gender difference. Coronavirus phase and employment status had significant interaction effects (p < 0.01) on anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Younger age, males in full-time jobs, in marital relationship, poor socioeconomic status were the risk factors, and comorbidity was the important risk factor. The result of this study could highlight the need for compulsory mental health screening and necessary medical/non-medical mental health support to all admitted patients.