Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Nov 19, 2021; 11(11): 1095-1105
Published online Nov 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i11.1095
Psychiatric hospitalization during the two SARS-CoV-2 pandemic waves: New warnings for acute psychotic episodes and suicidal behaviors
Fabio Panariello, Sara Longobardi, Lorenzo Cellini, Diana De Ronchi, Anna Rita Atti
Fabio Panariello, Sara Longobardi, Lorenzo Cellini, Diana De Ronchi, Anna Rita Atti, Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
Author contributions: Panariello F analyzed the data, managed the literature searches and analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Fabio P, Longobardi S, and Cellini L wrote the protocol and collected the data; De Ronchi D designed the study and amended the last draft of the manuscript; Atti AR designed the study, improved the first draft of the manuscript, and conducted the statistical analyses; All authors managed the literature searches and helped Panariello F write the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been conducted in agreement with our Institutional Guidelines.
Informed consent statement: The informed consent statement was waived.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fabio Panariello, MD, PhD, MSc, Junior Assistant Professor (Fixed-Term), Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna, Via Zamboni, 33, Bologna 40126, Italy. fabio.panariello@unibo.it
Received: April 30, 2021
Peer-review started: April 30, 2021
First decision: July 14, 2021
Revised: July 23, 2021
Accepted: September 3, 2021
Article in press: September 3, 2021
Published online: November 19, 2021
Processing time: 200 Days and 11.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 emergency has impacted global health. This study describes psychiatric hospitalization rates and clinical characteristics during changes in the first two epidemic waves compared to the respective periods of the previous 3 years. Although the hospitalization rate decreased during the first pandemic wave, compulsory hospitalizations have increased. During the second pandemic wave, hospitalization rates returned to those recorded in the same period of the previous 3 years. Acute relapse in psychotic disorders increased during the first epidemic wave, but acute relapse in affective and anxiety disorders have increased in the second epidemic wave as well as suicidal behavior.