Psychiatric Emergencies During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A 6-Month Observational Study

Background: The new SARS-CoV-2 has caused an ongoing pandemic. Health prevention measures to contain the outbreak are profoundly affecting the physical and mental health as well as personal freedom of the population.

Aim: To evaluate psychiatric emergencies in a 6-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 compared to those of the corresponding period of the previous year.

Methods: This monocentric observational study preliminarily collected variables of the urgent psychiatric consultations (UPCs) carried out in emergency room (ER) from 1-3-2020 to 31-8-2020 and the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who required UPCs in the 6-month period, comparing these data with those collected from 1-3-2019 to 31-8-2019. The data, collected in alpha-numeric code, were statistically analyzed through STATA 12-2011.

Results: This research reported a reduction of both UPCs and hospital psychiatric admissions. Concomitantly, we observed an increase of UPCs required by people already being treated by psychiatric and other health services, residents in psychiatric facilities and non-Italians. In 2020, differently from 2019, the most frequent reasons for urgent psychiatric consultations were aggressive behavior and adjustment disorders with anxiety and depressive mood.

Conclusion: This preliminary study suggests that, during the COVID-19 epidemic, urgent psychiatric consultations in ER were reduced, except for the most vulnerable people due to their clinical and/or social conditions.