1 | INTRODUCTION:
COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, which was first isolated in Wuhan, China in December 2019, spread all over the world and caused a pandemic in a short time. The pandemic and its consequences still cause serious problems affecting people all over the world.
The answers to many questions such as how long the pandemic will last and when it will end, whether the vaccine will be effective are not yet clear. These uncertainties added to restrictions applied due to the epidemic also negate the socioeconomic status. In addition to all these, when COVID-19 is suspected in their loved ones, even otherwise healthy people may show symptoms of sleeping problems, stress, anxiety, and depression along with behaviors such as fear, anger, and denial.1
In Turkey, after the first case detected on 10th March 2020, despite intermittent quarantine practices and social isolation, COVID-19 cases persist and even rise. 2 While some of these patients were treated at home, some were treated in hospital wards and intensive care units (ICU). Due to the high risk of human-to-human transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, infected individuals must isolate themselves from the society as well as the family members throughout their illness. In our country, The Ministry of Health restricted patient visits, especially in the pandemic intensive care units starting from the beginning of the pandemic for the same reason. Relatives of these patients cannot see, touch, or talk to them under these circumstances. Another difference from the pre-pandemic period is that doctors report their patients’ progress through phone calls, not face-to-face.
Anxiety and depression are not rare among relatives of the patients in the ICU.3 During the pandemic, visit and interview restrictions are expected to increase these symptoms. Even without a pandemic, we can say that being a relative of an intensive care patient is a stress factor itself while it is much worse in a pandemic which has many uncertainties.
Various studies have been conducted to measure the degree of anxiety and depression caused by the pandemic and quarantine period in various patient groups or healthy individuals since the beginning of the pandemic.4,5 Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression levels in general population are shown to be higher in China, where the pandemic started and then Italy, which is one of the most affected European countries, respectively.6,7 We did not encounter any study in the literature concerning anxiety and depression levels in the relatives of the patient being treated in the ICU due to COVID-19.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the anxiety and depression levels, incidences and the reasons causing them in the relatives of the patients treated in the ICU with positive or negative SARS-CoV-2 test results.