Cargando…

Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel

BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures (social and physical distancing, school closure, etc.) taken to prevent the spread had remarkable psychological and social effects on the population. These measures have been linked to post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression, and other...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kalyva, D, Bakola, M, Kitsou, K S, Alon, S, Ginat, K, Plotas, P, Charalambous, G, Jelastopulu, E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10596450/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.1391
_version_ 1785125107361906688
author Kalyva, D
Bakola, M
Kitsou, K S
Alon, S
Ginat, K
Plotas, P
Charalambous, G
Jelastopulu, E
author_facet Kalyva, D
Bakola, M
Kitsou, K S
Alon, S
Ginat, K
Plotas, P
Charalambous, G
Jelastopulu, E
author_sort Kalyva, D
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures (social and physical distancing, school closure, etc.) taken to prevent the spread had remarkable psychological and social effects on the population. These measures have been linked to post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression, and other stress symptoms that negatively impact the psychological well-being. Our aim was to compare the determinants of use of psychiatric services before and during the pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a record-based retrospective study from two periods, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, utilizing the electronic system Prometheus at the Mazor Mental Health Medical Center (MMHMC) located in the Acre region of Northern Israel. RESULTS: Our sample consisted of 528 newly admitted patients, 96.6% came voluntarily, 55.9% were male, with a mean age of 41.1 years (SD ± 16) and living approximately 7.1 km (SD ± 8.5) from MMHMC away. 53% were Jewish, 21.8% lived alone, and 79.9% were unemployed. The main diagnoses were psychotic disorders (16.3%), adjustment and posttraumatic stress disorders (both 13.6%), followed by depression (9.3%), anxiety (7.8%), personality disorders (4.7%), and all other diagnoses. Most patients were referred to MMHMC by their primary care physician (58.1%) or psychiatrist (41.5%), and 21.4% had a family psychiatric history. Comparing the two periods, no statistically significant differences were observed in all examined variables and clinical characteristics except for the underlying risk factors for seeking mental health services. In the pre-pandemic period, the rate of suicide attempts is 26.9%, of violence 38.8%, and of other risk factors 34.3%, while the corresponding percentages during the pandemic are 49.1%, 39.6%, and 24.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed approximately the same characteristics of people seeking mental health services during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a significant increase in suicide attempts was observed during this period.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10596450
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-105964502023-10-25 Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel Kalyva, D Bakola, M Kitsou, K S Alon, S Ginat, K Plotas, P Charalambous, G Jelastopulu, E Eur J Public Health Poster Displays BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures (social and physical distancing, school closure, etc.) taken to prevent the spread had remarkable psychological and social effects on the population. These measures have been linked to post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression, and other stress symptoms that negatively impact the psychological well-being. Our aim was to compare the determinants of use of psychiatric services before and during the pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a record-based retrospective study from two periods, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, utilizing the electronic system Prometheus at the Mazor Mental Health Medical Center (MMHMC) located in the Acre region of Northern Israel. RESULTS: Our sample consisted of 528 newly admitted patients, 96.6% came voluntarily, 55.9% were male, with a mean age of 41.1 years (SD ± 16) and living approximately 7.1 km (SD ± 8.5) from MMHMC away. 53% were Jewish, 21.8% lived alone, and 79.9% were unemployed. The main diagnoses were psychotic disorders (16.3%), adjustment and posttraumatic stress disorders (both 13.6%), followed by depression (9.3%), anxiety (7.8%), personality disorders (4.7%), and all other diagnoses. Most patients were referred to MMHMC by their primary care physician (58.1%) or psychiatrist (41.5%), and 21.4% had a family psychiatric history. Comparing the two periods, no statistically significant differences were observed in all examined variables and clinical characteristics except for the underlying risk factors for seeking mental health services. In the pre-pandemic period, the rate of suicide attempts is 26.9%, of violence 38.8%, and of other risk factors 34.3%, while the corresponding percentages during the pandemic are 49.1%, 39.6%, and 24.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed approximately the same characteristics of people seeking mental health services during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a significant increase in suicide attempts was observed during this period. Oxford University Press 2023-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10596450/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.1391 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Poster Displays
Kalyva, D
Bakola, M
Kitsou, K S
Alon, S
Ginat, K
Plotas, P
Charalambous, G
Jelastopulu, E
Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title_full Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title_fullStr Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title_full_unstemmed Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title_short Seeking mental health services before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Acre region of Israel
title_sort seeking mental health services before and during covid-19 pandemic in the acre region of israel
topic Poster Displays
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10596450/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.1391
work_keys_str_mv AT kalyvad seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT bakolam seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT kitsouks seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT alons seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT ginatk seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT plotasp seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT charalambousg seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael
AT jelastopulue seekingmentalhealthservicesbeforeandduringcovid19pandemicintheacreregionofisrael