The risk of affective disorders in COVID-19 recovered students

BACKGROUND: The annual increase in patients with symptoms of affective disorders caused by COVID-19 highlights the need to investigate this issue.

AIM: To investigate the risk of COVID-19 consequences presented with symptoms of affective disorders in students of higher education institutions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 131 female (n=89) and male (n=42) students of higher education institutions aged 18 to 31 years. All participants had COVID-19 (U04.9, U07.1, U07.2) and were not diagnosed with any mental disorder (ICD-10 codes F00–F99). Clinical psychophysiological and psychometric evaluation techniques, as well as descriptive statistics were used.

RESULTS: Most students (75.6%, n=99) in the study group had a mild infection. Female and male students had psychophysiological COVID-19 consequences of asthenia (77.9% of participants, n=102) and cognitive decline (54.2%, n=71). Affective disorders were diagnosed in 40.4% female participants, symptoms of mood disorders were much less frequent in men. Post-COVID-19 hypochondriac thoughts were found to be more common in women. Among all respondents, COVID-19 consequences of psychophysiological symptoms not only occurred within the first weeks after the viral disease, but also persisted for several months (in 36.6% of respondents, n=48), without resulting in an affective disorder. Psychometric evaluation techniques (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Hypomania Checklist, Beck Depression Inventory) revealed higher anxiety and cyclothymic mood swings in female and male students.

CONCLUSION: In COVID-19 recovered students without prior affective disorder, the most common disease consequences were asthenic symptoms (men and women were equally affected). Cyclothymic mood swings were noted, with a higher prevalence in women. Additional psychometric evaluation techniques found that state and trait anxiety in men and women was moderate, with women being more prone to depression.