University of Ulsan College of Medicine Reports Findings in COVID-19 (Impact of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of mental health services in South Korea: a nationwide, health insurance data-based study): Coronavirus – COVID-19

2022 NOV 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- New research on Coronavirus - COVID-19 is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly affected the utilization of mental health services. Existing evidence investigating this issue at the nationwide level is lacking, and it is uncertain whether the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of psychiatric services differs based on psychiatric diagnosis.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, “Data from the claims database between October 2015 and August 2020 was obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment agency in South Korea. Based on the main diagnostic codes, psychiatric patients were identified and categorized into diagnostic groups (anxiety disorders, bipolar and related disorders, depressive disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders). We calculated the number of psychiatric inpatients and outpatients and the medication adherence of patients for each month. We compared the actual and predicted values of outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and performed interrupted time-series analyses to test the statistical significance of the impact of the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of inpatients and admissions to psychiatric hospitals decreased for bipolar and related disorders and depressive disorders. In addition, the number of patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals for schizophrenia spectrum disorders decreased. The number of psychiatric outpatients showed no significant change in all diagnostic groups. Increased medication adherence was observed for depressive, schizophrenia spectrum, and bipolar and related disorders.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a trend of a decreasing number of psychiatric inpatients and increasing medication adherence; however, the number of psychiatric outpatients remained unaltered.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Impact of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of mental health services in South Korea: a nationwide, health insurance data-based study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2022. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology can be contacted at: Springer Heidelberg, Tiergartenstrasse 17, D-69121 Heidelberg, Germany. (Springer - www.springer.com; Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology - http://www.springerlink.com/content/0933-7954/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Harin Kim, Dept. of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-Ro 43-Gil, SongPa-Gu, Seoul, 05505, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Sung Woo Joo, Young Tak Jo, Soojin Ahn, Young Jae Choi, Woohyeok Choi and Jungsun Lee.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02382-z. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is: Springer Heidelberg, Tiergartenstrasse 17, D-69121 Heidelberg, Germany.

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