Analysis of the structure of psycho-emotional disorders in patients with consequences of CVA who underwent rehabilitation at the FSCCRR in conditions of social and communicative deprivation

Introduction: Patients of FRCC ICMRR undergo rehabilitation after "cerebral accidents" of acute cerebrovascular accident (ACVA), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), brain surgery. During the pandemic COVID-19 (2020–2021), the hard situation of patients dealing with the disease is made more difficult by the visits ban in the hospital. Patients are forced to stay a month or more of loneliness, away from family and loved ones, in conditions of "isolation".

Aims: Was to identify the frequency of occurrence and severity of anxiety and depressive disorders among patients caused by a long stay in the hospital, limited communication with relatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods: The study group consisted of 132 patients of the Federal Research and Clinical Center of Intensive Care Medicine and Rehabilitation (FRCC ICMRR) who were hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic (from May 2020 to April 2021); the comparison group consisted of 104 patients who were treated in the FRCC ICMRR in 2019. After studying the medical documentation, 2 groups of patients were formed: the study group of 21 people and the comparison group of 24 people with an identical distribution by gender and age, by the severity of neurological deficit (mild and moderate severity of the lesion), localization of the process, criteria of social activity. The following methods were used in the study: organizational-comparative method; empirical-observation, conversation, questionnaire; psychodiagnostic methods-tests (ODS-2, HADS, STAI), the method of expert assessments, a qualitative method of data processing (differentiation of material by groups, its analysis).

Results: The stress of hospitalisation and unvoluntary isolation makes patient’s mental health much worse, causes mental maladjustment, and often manifests itself in the development of anxiety-depressive pathopsychological symptoms: the frequency of occurrence of personal anxiety increased by 3 times; the severity of the symptoms of situational anxiety increased by 1.5 times, no cases of neurosis were detected among patients of both groups.

Conclusions: To reduce the negative consequences of psycho-emotional stress from unvoluntary isolation, to prevent the formation of social-stress disorder, it is necessary to carry out a number of activities not only in a separate institution, but also at the global level.