Anxiety in pandemic epidemiological characteristics of anxiety disorders seen through telepsychiatry in a university hospital

Abstract

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic has increased anxiety cases and caused big modifications in the way medical care is provided.
Objective: to describe the epidemiological characteristics of anxiety disorders treated through telepsychiatry in a Hospital Universitario.
Methodology: observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. A non-random purposive sampling was performed. Electronic records of patients treated in the Servicio de Psiquiatría of the “Hospital de Clínicas”, Paraguay, between February and May 2021 were used. Descriptive statistics were performed for all variables. Measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated for quantitative variables. Qualitative variables were summarized in frequencies and percentages.
Results: the analysis included 804 patients. Out of the patients, 71,5 % (575) were from rural areas. Out of all patients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (20,49 % n = 165), 69,1 % (114) were female and 49,7 % (82) had panic disorder (episodic paroxysmal anxiety), 28,5 % (47) were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, and 21,8 % (36) had an unspecified anxiety disorder.
Conclusion: more than 20 % of the patients who consulted through the telepsychiatry modality presented with an anxiety spectrum disorder. Cases were presented in both rural and urban areas and preferably in females. Panic disorder emerged as the most frequent disorder in the accessible population, representing almost half of all diagnosed anxiety cases.