Comparison of Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Psychiatric Complaints Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether there was a difference in the psychiatric complaints of patients presenting to the emergency department before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: All patients aged 18 years and over who presented to the adult emergency department of the University of Health Sciences Bursa Yüksek İhtisas Training and Research Hospital between 11.03.2019 and 11.03.2021 with psychiatric complaints, for whom psychiatry consultation was requested, and whose complete study data were available were retrospectively included in the study. Results: There were 1508 patients in the study. Of the patients, 50.9% (n=768) were in the pre-pandemic group, 54.0% (n=815) were single, and 77.4% (n=1167) were unemployed. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant correlation was found between diagnosed psychiatric diseases, depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol-substance withdrawal, panic disorder, delirium, and other psychiatric diseases with the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods respectively [(p=0.001), (p