Phenomenological structure of anxiety disorders in persons who have transferred COVID-19

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is neurotropic because its adhesion protein has a high affinity for Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 receptors, which are expressed, among other things, on the endothelium of cerebral capillaries. There are several theories of the pathogenesis of brain damage in COVID-19: direct viral damage, hypoxia/ischemia and systemic inflammation, autoimmune damage. The study was conducted to study the clinical and psychopathological features of anxiety disorders in patients who suffered from COVID-19. During 2020–2022, 94 patients (49 men and 55 women) with an average age of (33.0±5.0) years who suffered from COVID-19 and were diagnosed with anxiety disorders were examined. According to the results of the study was found: a characteristic low mood background; feeling anxious; unmotivated anxiety; internal tension with inability to relax; anxious fears; intrusive anxious thoughts that intensify in the evening and at night, which prevents falling asleep; attacks of fear, which are accompanied by suffocation, a feeling of unreality, fear of death; exaggerated wariness; inability to control anxiety; feeling of loss of control over one's life; irritability; decreased ability to concentrate; motor tension; autonomic hyperactivity; sleep disorders. The data obtained in the course of the study formed the basis for the development of a comprehensive personalized program for the correction of anxiety disorders in patients with COVID-19 with differentiated use of psychopharmacotherapy, psychotherapy and psychoeducation. It was concluded that patients are characterized by pronounced manifestations of anxiety disorders: prolonged anxiety-depressive reaction, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder; anxiety disorder of an organic nature.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 virus, neurotropic virus, anxiety, depressive states.