© Provided by Best Life
Thanks to growing studies and research, doctors’ understanding of how to treat severe cases of incoming coronavirus patients improves with each passing day. Unfortunately, it is also becoming clear that the disease is affecting the body more than we originally thought in the form of surprisingly horrible side effects and complications. Now, medical experts are concerned about COVID-19 survivors who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that could affect them for years, and that the medical community must be prepared to deal with the demands for care it will create.
Administrators of Britain’s National Health Service have begun issuing calls for all doctors to automatically screen COVID-19 patients for PTSD before they are discharged from the hospital. The effects of the disease, which can include intense nightmares and flashbacks, can last a lifetime if not properly addressed and treated.
Experts say that experiences in intensive care units, which are usually considered deeply traumatic, are especially worse for coronavirus survivors. “For many people hospitalized with COVID-19 it has been a potentially traumatic experience.” Michael Bloomfield, MD, a psychiatrist and NHS researcher at University College London, said the Guardian. “Being in intensive care is scary. There was a particular risk in their own lives, because they were very sick. The doctors and nurses who treated people in the hospital had to wear protective equipment. People could not see their relatives And the patients had tubes in them and, if they were intubated, they were in an altered state of consciousness. “
The highly contagious nature and aggressively dangerous symptoms of the virus have made the experience of many patients particularly difficult to process even after discharge. “It was like being in hell,” a patient told the BBC. “I saw people dying, people with their lives being sucked out. The staff has masks and all they saw was eyes, it was so lonely and scary.”
Calls for post-hospital treatment of PTSD in coronavirus survivors were also echoed in a report recently published in the medical journal. Global health research and policy. The study examined the rates of PTSD cases in survivors of previous disease outbreaks, including the 2003 SARS outbreak, the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic, and the 2015 Ebola outbreak, and found that “epidemiological studies have shown a fairly high prevalence of mental health problems among survivors, victims’ families, medical professionals, and the general public after an infectious disease epidemic. ” The authors conclude the study by saying that “we believe it is urgent to provide a mental health service aimed at preventing PTSD to survivors and others exposed to COVID-19.”
For now, experts continue to look to the future and raise awareness about the mental health implications of the pandemic. “We need to make sure we support these patients,” Bloomfield told the BBC. “On-site services are highly variable. Failure to do more could have long-term consequences.”
