Paris (AFP)
The coronavirus epidemic and confinement could lead to a "loss of luck" for the 2.5 million people in psychiatric care, alarm a hundred doctors in a forum published in Le Parisien Thursday.
The "great vulnerability" of these patients in the epidemic context "makes us fear an intolerable loss of luck. At a time when the pandemic strikes us all, these people must be treated with the greatest attention", plead the signatories, who consider that their patients "remain in the blind spot of our public policies".
"Those who were followed regularly in psychiatric care centers can no longer go there today, and therefore risk seeing their pre-existing pathology worsen," worry the signatories.
Affected patients suffer 1.5 times to twice as often as the rest of the population from associated conditions, such as cardiovascular disorders, diabetes or hypertension, and are therefore more vulnerable to Covid-19, observe the authors. of this text.
"Suffering from impaired memory and concentration, they may also find it more difficult to respect the rules of confinement and barrier gestures," alarmed the signatories, including 90 psychiatrists, psychologists, as well as patient associations.
In the immediate future, healthcare teams have developed "new remote monitoring methods to prevent psychiatric decompensations or the risk of suicide", and certain psychiatric hospitals have reorganized, grouping together patients infected with Covid-19.
But in the future, psychiatry will have to continue to "innovate", in particular to prevent "situations of post-traumatic stress or depressive states which could result" from the current crisis, believe the authors.
According to them, French psychiatry must benefit from "emergency plans" and "means" if it wants to be able to respond "tomorrow" to a "new epidemic situation and its negative effects in terms of mental health on the French population".
© 2020 AFP