Psychological characteristics of post-COVID-19 patients treated at a rehabilitation center in Campina Grande do Sul

Abstract

Introduction: In December 2019, WHO was informed of a new virus called SarC20, which causes the disease COVID-19. The new virus high contamination rate. COVID-19 has spawned a worldwide pandemic. The action of the virus on the immune system and many causes of hospitalizations. Such patients have been presenting neuropsychiatric sequelae and alterations, which generates social benefits and the quality of their lives. Objective: The aim of the present study is to analyze psychological aspects of mood and cognition in patients with post-COVID-19 symptoms. Methods: The research consisted of the analysis of medical records of patients with post-COVID-19 symptoms, treated in the psychology sector of a rehabilitation center in the city of Campina Grande do Sul-PR, between August 2020 and September 2021 The selection of the medical records was performed in the psychology sector of the rehabilitation center, after authorization from the local ethics committee. An active search was carried out, based on the name of the psychology professional linked to the system that attended the rehabilitation center. For this purpose, the service computer, the researcher's login and password will be used to access TASY (hospital management software; Philips, USA). The history and diagnosis/comorbidities of patients treated in the sector between August 2020 and September 2021 were verified. Thus, they were divided into two groups, patients with complaints related to mood and behavior (25 participants) and a second with complaints only of order cognitive (18 participants). The data used were from those patients who had a positive record for COVID-19 in the document analysis, evolution or diagnosis of the TASY system, performed by the Neurologist or Physiatrist of the service. Only data from the entry assessment of these patients will be considered. The results of the scales and tests applied (HAD scale, FDT, Rey Complex Figures, RAVLT, Psychological Battery for Attention Assessment, Corsi Cubes and FAS) used were those who did not complain of severe mood changes or diagnosis of mental disorder. The data collected in the medical records refer to age, sex, mood, behavior
and cognitive functions. All necessary data will be recorded in an Excel 2016 software spreadsheet (Microsoft, USA) for further analysis. No documents will be printed or taken out of service. After registration, the data will be tabulated for statistical analysis.
Results: 80% of the patients presented mood alterations, with 64% presenting a diagnosis of mental disorder, with more diverse alterations being for temporal-spatial orientation. Cognitive assessment results indicate significant differences in the comparison between the sexes, but do not refer to alterations in some cognitive functions. The copy of Rey's figure, the male percentile below 10, and the most recurrent planning ability (ability to mentally take a route before execution) was type III for men and IV for females, with these children being prominent 7 to 10 years. No prominent test for male participants was ranked lower than females in the mean-or. Both have an average-lower score for resistance. For alternating attention, a lower score was observed for males, and an average-lower score for female participants. The RAVLT indicated a clinical deficit in the overall results, below the 5th percentile for
male patients. Both sexes performed poorly in episodic verbal short-term memory, with high interference from retroactive content and difficulty in memory of semantic content. Finally, the patients proposed a lower memory and operational result, due to the
immediate end of the Color Cube. Conclusion: The results indicate changes in memory, attention, language and changes in mental flexibility in post-COVID-19 patients.