Fadiga crônica como sequela psiquiátrica pós COVID-19 na comunidade acadêmica do Campus Dr João Paulo Valle Mendes em Belém-PA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: the impact of Sars-CoV-2, which causes covid-19, in the current context is easily perceptible in view of its worldwide unfolding resulting from its high transmissibility that caused the 2020 pandemic. Its repercussion in international health has encouraged the identification of its physical and psychiatric symptoms in affected patients, aiming at the creation of appropriate conducts to combat it. However, it is noted that the virus does not only have implications during the period of infection, but also psychiatric consequences in the post-infection course, especially chronic fatigue, whose consequences may be influenced by several variables, such as the context of the pandemic and the severity of the infectious condition. OBJECTIVES: to identify the prevalence of chronic fatigue among students, teachers and employees who had covid-19, relating them to possible individual variables that could have influenced post-covid symptoms, if any. METHODOLOGY: data collection was carried out at Campus João Paulo do Valle Mendes of Cesupa through the availability of a psychosocial questionnaire that will use 10 items from the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), which is self-administered. This scale was distributed through the Google Forms platform, aiming at the convenience of respondents. Data analysis was performed in an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using the BioEstat version 5.3 program. RESULTS: A sample of 237 volunteers was used. Of these, 187 had COVID-19, including 118 students, 63 teachers and 6 employees. Most individuals are in the 20-39 age range and are predominantly female. It was found that 18.7% of those who had covid-19 had generalized anxiety disorder, which is the most prevalent disorder. With regard to the severity of the covid-19 condition, most of those who had fatigue in the moderate to severe stages in the post-infection period stated that they had suffered from a more severe form of the disease, with the percentages being equal between student teachers and employees. DISCUSSION: the present work demonstrates a relationship between the presence of psychiatric comorbidities and sequelae of post covid-19 fatigue, as evidenced by other authors, however, it reveals a discrepancy in relation to the occurrence of fatigue, which in accordance with the literature produced in the pandemic period, was more prevalent among women and older individuals. CONCLUSION: students and professors would have a certain parity in mild manifestations of fatigue, but students are more likely to evolve to moderate forms. Post-covid-19 fatigue proved to be more common in young people, having no relation to females. Psychiatric comorbidities predispose to acquiring the disease and later developing its sequelae in more severe forms. Finally, the severity of the covid-19 condition provides a greater chance of developing more serious psychiatric sequelae.