Methodology of environmental psychiatry in the study of stress associated with COVID-19

Methodology of environmental psychiatry in the study of stress associated with COVID-19

 

Authors

 

V.I. Bronsky

Educational Institution “Gomel State Medical University”, Gomel, Belarus

S.V. Tolkanets

Educational Institution “Gomel State Medical University”, Gomel, Belarus

K.V. Bronskaya

State Institution “Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology”, Gomel, Belarus

E.N. Gavrilyuk

State Institution “Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology”, Gomel, Belarus

 

https://doi.org/10.26617/1810-3111-2024-1(122)-62-71

 

Journal: Siberian Herald of Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. 2024; 1 (122):  62-71.

 

Abstract

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic had a public effect and reflected the dominant fear in the public consciousness. WHO defined the scale of the global phenomenon as an emergency and infodemic. The loss of conditions for safe interaction was aggravated by restrictive anti-epidemic measures, forced changes in life patterns. This made it possible to consider the COVID-19 pandemic as a medical and social phenomenon with the development  of social stress disorders, COVID nosophobia and decrease in motivation to get vaccinated. Objective: to study clinical-psychopathological and socio-psychological features of neurotic and psychosomatic disorders in the post-COVID period and the nature of motivation to get vaccinated using the methodology of environmental psychiatry. Material and Methods. The design of the study was based on the methodology of environmental psychiatry, including the study of social ecology, demographic, clinical-psychopathological, socio-psychological factors. From the total sample (n=154), 4 groups of adult patients were formed based on the principle of a higher vulnerability to stress. The initial treatment group (n=62) – patients with complaints of an anxiety nature and their supposed association with coronavirus infection, which clinically corresponded to COVID nosophobia. The comparison group (n=13) – patients with somatic diseases. The group of patients with mental disorders (n=50) – observation by a psychotherapist, the disease was diagnosed before the onset of the pandemic. The control group (n=29) – apparently healthy individuals involved in recreational swimming. All those examined were divided into those vaccinated and those not vaccinated against COVID-19. Results. The assessment of social-environmental factors showed priority of financial and family factors in all groups. The study of the clinical and nosological structure of mental disorders revealed the predominance of the following disorders in groups: primary patients ‒ anxiety and somatoform, patients with the history of mental disorders – anxiety-phobic disorders. In the  groups of apparently healthy individuals and patients with somatic diseases, neurosis-like pathology was not found. Syndromal characteristics were pathogenetically associated with the nosology of diseases: anxiety symptoms – with psychoreactive disorder, algopathies – with somatoform disorder, depressive symptoms – with mood spectrum disorders, cerebrovascular disease – with psychoorganic syndrome and encephalopathy. The leading syndrome in groups of primary patients and patients with mental disorders was an uncontrollable anxiety, in patients with somatic diseases - somatogenic and cerebrogenic asthenia. In primary patients, the severity of symptoms of autonomic dysfunction and the severity of anxiety exceeded those of patients with somatic and mental pathologies, that reflected the conjugation of anxious affect and autonomic dysfunction. The distribution of unvaccinated patients in groups of patients was revealed as follows: those who initially addressed – 50%, apparently healthy – 10%, with somatic pathology – 10%, with mental pathology – 30%. Conclusion. The methodology of environmental psychiatry made it possible to identify the low ranking indicator of the coronavirus infection factor, which was discordant with the real threat of infection to health and life and was important both for preventive medicine and social psychology. The sociodemographic, individual-typological and clinical-psychopathological characteristics of opponents of vaccination were presented. The expediency of identifying the studied groups of patients in the interests of rehabilitation, using the methodology of environmental psychiatry, and optimizing motivation to get vaccinated was confirmed.

 

Keywords: environmental psychiatry, COVID-19, social-stress disorders, COVID nosophobia, opponents of vaccination, motivation to get vaccinated.

 

Article (pdf)

 

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Materials 

For citation: Bronsky V.I., Tolkanets S.V., Bronskaya K.V., Gavrilyuk E.N. Methodology of environmental psychiatry in the study of stress associated with COVID-19. Siberian Herald of Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry.2024; 1 (122): 62-71. https://doi.org/10.26617/1810-3111-2024-1(122)-62-71

 

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