Prof. Dr. Tanya Deneva from the Department of Clinical Laboratory of Medical University – Plovdiv and professors from Plovdiv University “Paisiy Hilendarski” Yuri Yanakiev and Kirilka Tagareva received an award for the report they presented at the World Congress of Psychology in Prague. The research they worked on was on “Diagnosis of anxiety, depression and stress in COVID-19 patients “.
Background: Coronavirus-related stress is recently leading cause of negative impact on global mental health. After COVID-19 pandemic is considerably contributes for increasing the number of mental health disorders related to anxiety, depression, distress, and aggressive behavior. Studies show a significant level of stress, anxiety, fear, and frustration during the pandemic, compared with studies before the pandemic. In this regards the assessment of the levels of stress on the psychological health in patients with coronavirus disease becoming an essential topic of research in developing effective re-liable and valid tools for stress assessment. The aim of this study was to analyse the rates of stress, anxiety, and depression presented in patients after COVID-19.
Materials and methods: The study included 80 COVID-19 patients with severe form of the disease on the 10th day after hospitalization and a control group (n=80) of healthy individuals. Symptoms of stress were measured with a Stress symptom checklist (SSCL). Anxiety and depression were measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Zung Depression Scale
Results: Based on their stress scores from SSCL the patients were associated with high stress level. In terms of the controls all the participants showed a low to moderate stress level. Regarding the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory 35.2 % and 58.9 % of patients showed a positive score (≥40) for T-anxiety and S-anxiety scale, respectively. 5.9 % indicated greater anxiety (score ≥ 55) for T-anxiety. In relation to the depression scale, 22.5 % had mildly depressive states and 7.8% had moderately depressive states. We found significant positive correlation between levels of stress and S-anxiety score. Conclusion: Data from our study demonstrated that anxiety and depression may contribute to exploring negative impact of COVID-19 related stress.
