Mental state of patients with generalized parodontal diseases with eating disorders in the rehabilitation period COVID-19

Abstract

Summary. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a marked increase in the number of reports of mental disorders worldwide. Thus, data from international studies confirm that quarantine measures are also associated with unique problems for people with eating disorders (ED). This may be due to the fact that people with already existing mental health problems are particularly vulnerable to stress factors. It is worth noting that individuals with eating disorders are vulnerable not only to general mental stressors, that is, those that affect the entire population, but also to physical changes in daily routines and social messages about food and body weight that have appeared under isolation time.

The aim of the study – to study and conduct a comparative analysis of the nature and degree of psychological manifestations in patients with periodontal tissue diseases and eating disorders who are in the rehabilitation period after the disease of COVID-19 by analyzing psychological screening tests.

Materials and Methods. The total number of patients with GPD with ED was 124 people (73 women and 51 men), age range from 18 to 36 years. A group of patients who contracted COVID-19 between March 2020 and December 2020 was removed from the representative contingent. We examined a total of 44 persons with GPD and ED, who had different etiological reasons, different complaints and different clinical manifestations, with informed consent. To assess the psychological status of patients, the following questionnaires were used: self-developed questionnaire, Giessen questionnaire of somatic complaints, Toronto alexithymic scale, modified 10-step scale of subjective pain analysis FPS-R (based on Bayers). In order to rule out cognitive consequences (especially in patients who suffered from severe or severe form of COVID-19), the patients' cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) prior to the start of rehabilitation. Statistical methods.

Results and Discussion. All patients (100 %) with GPD at ED after suffering from the COVID-19 disease had serious mental and physical problems, post-traumatic stress, respiratory disorders, nutritional insufficiency, as well as exacerbation of accompanying chronic diseases. 40 (82.4 %) patients were diagnosed with signs of alexithymia, which is defined as the difficulty and inability to identify and describe feelings and emotions, as well as characterized by the poverty of imagination and concreteness and external orientation of thinking.

Conclusions. As a result of the conducted study, the influence of transferred COVID-19 on the psychological status of patients with GPD at ED was analyzed and it was determined that the level of anxiety increased in 58 % of patients after recovery from COVID-19. After analyzing the accompanying dental symptoms of patients after the transfer of COVID-19, it was concluded that the exacerbation of GPD at ED after the transfer of COVID-19 was detected in 34 % of patients. The conducted study made it possible to determine the targets of psychological influence on patients with GPD at ED after suffering from COVID-19 and to develop tactics for their psychological support at all stages of treatment.