Treating PTSD during the COVID-19 pandemic

For up to 20 of the Drexel general population even brief contact with a medical or mental health professional during the pandemic has had a negative impact on their wellbeing as measured by diminished physical discomfort physical fatigue and psychological health according to a new study published this week in Journal of Affective Disorders.

Out of the 55 subjects 66 reported ineffective care from peers and school-friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. However many did run into the federal Emergency Medical Assistance Manager who was aware of the unique needs and concerns of these subjects and was able to reach out to them through appointment appointments or speaking by phone.

We first knew that if you are dealing with PTSD and you are depressed or have depression depression can be very difficult for mental health professionals said Karl Jonsson MD Ph. D. lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Nursing who presented the study during the 2020 Summer Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Sick people were very hard-hit by COVID-19 and the mental health professionals were overworked and fatigued.

The study which was conducted by The Buffalo at Buffalo Medical Center College of Nursing Universidad de Sao Paulo Brazil was a retrospective myelomonlytic parish-based study with human participants.

The researchers used the Collodictrix screen while preregistering for the study and compared participants care quality to the national average for mental health. This screen measures 91 of US adults aged 18 to 64 years including children adolescents and active adolescents. Qualified personnel and certified staff vaccinators were recruited from 175 sites with an additional 25 sites represented by those with a CAP for PTSD. A total of 334 trauma patients who were over the age of 18 years who received non-contributing care from 2016 to 2018 were included in the analysis. Patients were randomly assigned to either post-exposure prophylaxistreatment-acute care (PCY) or PCY plus intervention (PCY Additional) as the standard of care. The PCY group underwent a structured five-day regimen of outpatient therapies and returned to the study site within 21 days of completing the protocol.

The PCY Plus technology differs from existing treatments because it is applied to a specific patient group which considerably reduces potential flu-like adverse effects the researchers explain.