Background

Not only causing major implications on physical medicine, COVID-19 had changed the landscape in psychiatric medicine. The world is facing an impending surge of psychiatric disorders, and the early signs are now clearer than ever. These early signs might help psychiatrist and physicians, in general, to more accurately analyse, diagnose and treat these psychiatric disorders.

Objectives

To report the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients who experience psychiatric symptoms.

Material and methods

The data was collected by secondary data in the form of medical records from patients treated at Udayana University Hospital within the period April 2020 to March 2021.

Results

Patients with psychiatric disorders admitted to this hospital (n = 94) had a mean age of 48.5 (SD ± 14.5) years of age, with males constituting 51.1%. The psychiatric diagnoses found were insomnia (44.7%), adjustment disorder (26.6%), anxiety disorder (16.0%), depression (6.4%), psychosis (4.3%), bipolar disorder (3.2%), as well as delirium, acute stress reaction and schizophrenia at 2.1% each. These patients had a mean duration of hospitalisation of 13.2 (SD ± 6.1) days. The hospital recorded a fatality rate of 7.4% in this particular element of patients, higher than the fatality rate observed in those of the whole population.

Conclusions

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, though not directly implying, was a warning sign of the impending surge of the number of psychiatric diagnoses in the future. These psychiatric patients are not to be left alone and ignored, as they suggest a possible increase in fatality rate.