In our study, we found that approximately 20% of patients who were infected by SARS-CoV-2 and were admitted to the hospital experienced PTSD. However, sex, age, duration of admission, and the duration between discharge and the interview were not associated with the development of PTSD.
A study conducted by Park et al. on 63 of 148 patients who developed Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and survived in Korea reported that PTSD occurred in 42.9% of the patients 1 year after a full recovery [13]. Regardless of the severity of the infection, the PTSD risk was higher for cases in which the survivors perceived high social stigma against infected patients or had increased anxiety levels [13]. Another report showed that 42% of Chinese patients who were infected with SARS experienced PTSD even after 4 years. The incidence of PTSD after COVID-19 (20%) is lower than that after MERS or SARS [14]. Although this could be explained by differences in the duration between the outbreak and the investigation of the presence of PTSD, it is also possible that the lower mortality rate (2–5%) for individuals with PTSD due to COVID-19 compared with the higher rates (10–20%) in MERS or SARS, could have affected the lower incidence of PTSD in COVID-19 [15].
During the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies are being performed on the incidence of PTSD [7–10]. In April 2020, Fekih-Romdhane et al. [7] investigated the presence of PTSD in 603 Tunisian people and reported that 33% of the participants had PTSD. Liu et al. [9] found similar results (31.8%) while evaluating the incidence of PTSD in 898 American young adults between April 13, 2020 and May 19, 2020. Forte et al. [8] investigated the presence of PTSD in 2,286 Italians during the massive COVID-19 outbreak in Italy and found that PTSD was present in 29.5% of the participants. Lastly, Wang et al. [10] evaluated 202 nurses exposed to COVID-19 in Hubei, China, and reported that 16.8% of them had PTSD.
However, these studies included both individuals who were not diagnosed with COVID-19 and those who were. In contrast, our study exclusively included patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and were hospitalized, treated, and discharged. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study on the incidence of PTSD among COVID-19 patients.
The current study has a few limitations. First, the sample size was small. Second, other psychiatric symptoms including depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders were not evaluated. Finally, several variables that could be potential risk factors for PTSD, such as history of mental illness, characteristics, and social supports, were not investigated. Therefore, further studies are needed to overcome and account for these limitations.