UK Edition
PTSD screening should be mandatory for discharged Covid-19 patients, experts say
Those recovering from severe Covid-19 have a 'very high risk of developing trauma', psychiatrists and psychologists have said
Screening patients who have been discharged from hospital after contracting Covid-19 for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) should become mandatory, mental health experts have said.
Psychiatrists and psychologists have urged the NHS to ensure those leaving hospital are assessed regularly and those displaying symptoms of PTSD should undergo treatment to prevent recurring problems, such as nightmares, The Guardian has reported.
Dr Michael Bloomfield, an NHS psychiatrist, researcher at University College London (UCL) and one of the experts calling for the assessments, said: “For many people hospitalised with Covid-19 it’s been a potentially traumatic experience.
“Being in intensive care is frightening. There was a particular risk to their own life, because they were very ill. And early in the pandemic we didn’t have treatments available for covid.”
He added that although being in hospital meant patients were receiving vital care, staff wearing full PPE, being unable to see relatives and “knowing how dangerous the situation was would have been extremely frightening for anybody”.
He said “a huge toll of trauma from that would be expected”.
All patients who were treated in intensive care, a high-dependency unit or hospital ward should be screened for signs of PTSD and other mental conditions prior to being discharged and again one month following, the experts argue.
The group, from UCL, Oxford University, King’s College London, the NHS and Haifa University in Israel, have come together to lobby NHS bosses and the Government to establish such a service.
They state that a similar system was used following the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017 and the Grenfell Tower fire in June that same year, with survivors benefiting from early identification and treatment.
Guidelines drawn up by the group to help spot and address PTSD in Covid-19 survivors says those who were “most severely affected by Covid-19 are likely to be at very high risk of developing trauma and stress-related mental health difficulties”.