Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes in a cohort of early psychosis patients.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical outcomes, we used data from Electronic Health Records from 128 patients receiving care at a First Episode Psychosis clinic.

Methods

Rates of admission or emergency room (ER) visits from January 2020 to July 2020 were analysed using difference-in-difference regression. We used the same weeks in 2019 to control for seasonality.

Results

We found 17 hospitalizations or ER visits between 1 January 2020 and 13 March 2020 (incidence rate: 71.4 events/1000 person-weeks) and 6 between 14 March 2020 and 20 June 2020 (incidence rate: 18.5 events/1000 person-weeks) for an incidence rate ratio of 0.26. The severity of presentation worsened after transition to telemedicine. No signs of significant interruptions of care

SUBMITTER: Szmulewicz AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8013468 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature