Long-term psychiatric morbidities among SARS survivors

By I. Mak, C. Chu, P. Pan, M. Yiu, V. Chan. General Hospital Psychiatry, 2009

881 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Objective Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was the first massive infectious disease outbreak of the 21st century. However, it is unlikely that this outbreak will be the last. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term psychiatric morbidities in survivors of SARS. Method This is a cohort study designed to investigate psychiatric complications among SARS survivors treated in the United Christian Hospital 30 months after the SARS outbreak. Psychiatric morbidities were assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, the Impact of Events Scale–Revised and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Functional outcomes were assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey. Results Ninety subjects were recruited, yielding a response rate of 96.8%. Post-SARS cumulative incidence of DSM-IV psychiatric disorders was 58.9%. Current prevalence for any psychiatric disorder at 30 months post-SARS was 33.3%. One-fourth of the patients had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 15.6% had depressive disorders. Conclusion The outbreak of SARS can be regarded as a mental health catastrophe. PTSD was the most prevalent long-term psychiatric condition, followed by depressive disorders. Our results highlight the need to enhance preparedness and competence of health care professionals in detecting and managing the psychological sequelae of future comparable infectious disease outbreaks.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f847be5946264f279b509217ef544de317f79642

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Citations in the corpus

• Social media influence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020, background): “…in the population and to establish appropriate measures to prevent sequels associated, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which was the most prevalent psychiatric sequelae after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Asia in 2003, followed by depressive disorders (15).”
• Psychiatric and neuropsychiatric presentations associated with severe coronavirus infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis with comparison to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020, neutral): “Emotional lability, pressured speech, and euphoria were only reported by patients and relatives after a short follow-up (mean 42 days [range 26–86]) in one study 43 in which corticosteroids had frequently been prescribed at high doses and symptoms; therefore, it might be of limited relevance to the…”
• Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak (2020, background): “It indicated that participants from Hubei province- the infectious focus directly expose to public health emergency, and may suffer more mental health problemes[17,19].”
• Depression, anxiety, stress levels of physicians and associated factors in Covid-19 pandemics (2020, neutral): “Stress reaction symptoms such as anxiety, depression, somatization and hostility have been reported in about 10% of healthcare workers during and in the aftermath of previous outbreaks (Mak et al., 2009).”
• Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a web-based cross-sectional survey (2020, background): “traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive disorders were the most prevalent long-term psychological condition (Mak et al., 2009).”
• Conséquences psychopathologiques du confinement (2020, neutral): “Le risque de dépression peut également être différé [91] : 15,6 % es « survivants » du SARS à 30 mois de l’épidémie en Chine présenaient une dépression [93].”
• Depression and Anxiety in Hong Kong during COVID-19 (2020, result): “Previous studies have found that the overestimation of threat predicts anxiety in response to the outbreak of infectious diseases such as avian flu, Ebola virus, SARS, and Swine flu [2].”
• Psychological impact of the 2015 MERS outbreak on hospital workers and quarantined hemodialysis patients (2018, background): “Although the emergence of SARS stimulated related research, there remains little research on the psychological impact of people directly exposed to infectious disease outbreaks [6].”
• Public Mental Health Crisis during COVID-19 Pandemic, China (2020, background): “anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, developed in high-risk persons, especially survivors and frontline healthcare workers (7).”
• The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teenagers in China (2020, background): “The psychological consequences of infectious diseases have been reported to include depressed mood, anxiety, poor sleep, and increased fear and stress levels [4,5], with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive disorders being the most prevalent long-term psychological conditions [6].”