Coronavirus survivors face mental health challenges

Medical workers in protective gear carry a COVID-19 patient at Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in this Feb. 19 photo. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

In early March when the country's coronavirus crisis reached its peak, especially in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, President Moon Jae-in referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as a “war,” during a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Survivors of a war may struggle with a psychiatric condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other life-threatening experiences may present similar challenges as seen in former patients who have recovered from serious illnesses as they learn to cope with the mental health ramifications of those experiences.

A patient, who was diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and discharged from hospital in 2015, described his experience of treatment for the virus infection as “something that ordinary people can never know unless they are in my shoes.”

“It was so frustrating. I didn't know the outside world at all, and my family couldn't visit me either. I was completely isolated. No one ever wants to go through what I went through, I'm pretty sure,” he said.

According to recent research data released by Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), 54 percent of MERS survivors in 2015 suffered from some form of mental health problem even a year after recovering from the infectious disease. The research indicates that healthcare professionals should carefully monitor the mental health of COVID-19 patients as well.

The SNUH team conducted follow-up studies on the psychological aftereffects of 63 people out of 148 MERS survivors with other research participants including professors from the National Medical Center, Seoul Medical Center, Dankook University Hospital and Chungnam National University Hospital.

Thirty-eight patients passed away from the infection among a total of 186 registered in the national database as confirmed to be infected with MERS. Of the 148 survivors, 63 completed the psychological assessments.

The study showed that 34, or 54 percent, suffered from one or more mental health issues. Some 42.9 percent experienced PTSD and 27 percent suffered from depression. Twenty-two percent had suicidal thoughts, and 28 percent had insomnia.

The study also noted that the stronger the societal stigma and anxiety was against the infected patients, the greater the risk of them experiencing PTSD. Also a previous history of psychiatric treatment raised the risk of both PTSD and depression. To the contrary, the severity of the MERS infection did not affect mental health problems after treatment.

Researchers pointed out that such difficulties experienced by survivors of MERS are likely to be prevalent in patients who survive the new coronavirus infection.

“The MERS patients seemed to have been more anxious and even feared death because they were placed in a more isolated and unfamiliar environment, were surrounded by medical staff in protective gear, and were only allowed limited family visits ― less than those in a normal intensive care unit environment,” said Lee So-hee, the lead author and a professor at the National Medical Center.

“COVID-19 patients who are treated in isolation from the outside are highly likely to show similar symptoms as the MERS survivors,” Lee said.

In addition to the fear of the disease itself, the study also showed that social stigma attached to them influenced their symptoms. Even though MERS patients were victims of the virus, the prejudice of others who considered them “virus spreaders” and “perpetrators” could have affected their emotional difficulties.

The researchers conducting the study noted that raising awareness on the socio-psychological impact on the victims was needed to reduce the stigma attached to the infected people and as a part of active support for patients suffering the psychological difficulties.

“The media and the government should respect patients or quarantined people as citizens who are suffering, and be sensitive to words or actions that might stigmatize a specific person or group,” Lee said.

The full study was published in the latest issue of BMC Public Health, and can be accessed online under the title, “Posttraumatic stress disorder and depression of survivors 12 months after the outbreak of MERS in South Korea.”