COVID-19 and lockdown: effects on coercion and length of stay for patients with personality disorders

IF 3.7 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of psychiatric research Pub Date : 2025-05-29 DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.05.076

L. Dinsenbacher , J.S. Krückl , L. Imfeld , F. Helfenstein , J. Moeller , R. Lieb , U.E. Lang , C.G. Huber

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 presented a major challenge to mental health care. Due to the risk of infection and the restrictions during the lockdown, outpatient treatment services were scaled down. This may have been particularly challenging for patients with Personality Disorders (PD), for which a stable outpatient treatment setting is especially important. The aim of the study was to investigate if PD patients have experienced longer inpatient stays and more coercive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

In this multi-year, hospital-wide, longitudinal observational study, we compared the period before the outbreak of COVID-19 (until December 2019) and the period after (from January 2020) by means of an interrupted time series analysis including all adult inpatient cases with PD (N = 1170) admitted to the Adult Psychiatry, UPK, Basel, Switzerland, between October 2016 and December 2021 (for the median length of stay) and between January 2012 and December 2021 (for coercive measures). Outcome variables were the occurrence rate of coercive measures and the median length of stay.

Results

Both the occurrence rate of coercive measures (OR = 15.32, p = >.001) and the median length of stay (E = 244.016, p = .028) increased in PD patients after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that PD patients are specifically vulnerable to a changing and stressful psychosocial context such as that of a pandemic. Strategies to maintain outpatient care services and opportunities for short-term crisis intervention are essential for this group, especially to prevent a rise in coercive measures and unnecessarily prolonged inpatient treatment.

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COVID-19和封锁：对人格障碍患者的强迫和住院时间的影响

2020年2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的爆发给精神卫生保健带来了重大挑战。由于感染风险和封锁期间的限制，门诊治疗服务规模缩小。这对于人格障碍（PD）患者来说尤其具有挑战性，对于他们来说，稳定的门诊治疗环境尤为重要。该研究的目的是调查PD患者在COVID-19大流行期间是否经历了更长的住院时间和更多的强制措施。方法在这项多年的全院范围的纵向观察研究中，我们通过中断时间序列分析，比较了COVID-19爆发前（至2019年12月）和爆发后（自2020年1月）的时期，包括2016年10月至2021年12月（中位住院时间）和2012年1月至2021年12月（强制措施）期间在瑞士巴塞尔UPK成人精神病学收治的所有成年PD住院病例（N = 1170）。结果变量为强制措施的发生率和中位住院时间。结果PD患者在新冠肺炎疫情后强制措施发生率（OR = 15.32, p = >.001）和中位住院时间（E = 244.016, p = 0.028）均增加。我们的研究结果表明，PD患者特别容易受到变化和紧张的社会心理环境的影响，例如大流行。维持门诊护理服务和短期危机干预机会的战略对这一群体至关重要，特别是要防止强制性措施的增加和不必要的长期住院治疗。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of psychiatric research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.10%

发文量

622

审稿时长

130 days

期刊介绍： Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research: (1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors; (2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology; (3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;