Inducing situations and pathogenetic chains of health deterioration in combatants in the context of COVID-19 and quarantine
Natalia Danilevska 1 * , Vitalii Kurylo 1 , Olha Tkachenko 2 , Svitlana Podsevakhina 2 , Olena Chabanna 2
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1 Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, General and Medical Psychology, Narcology and Sexology, Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, Zaporizhzhia, UKRAINE2 Department of Therapy and Endocrinology, Zaporizhzhia Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia, UKRAINE* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic and the ensuing health problems associated with quarantine.
Methods: All combatants who were hospitalized during the first and most severe quarantine restrictions in Ukraine (from 12 March 2020 to 22 May 2020) were surveyed. Through clinical, anamnestic, psychopathological, and psychodiagnostic examination, including psychoanalysis and the fear of COVID-19 scale, the authors identified combatants’ health disorders and their association with pandemic and quarantine-related experiences.
Results: The authors found that the following situations could provoke deterioration in the health of combatants due to fear: contact with a patient with COVID-19, planned posting to the hotbed of COVID-19, military service in the area of high risk of contact with patients with COVID-19, receiving information about COVID-19, receiving false information about COVID-19, disruption of critical infrastructure due to quarantine measures.the authorshave provided an algorithm by which these traumatic situations provoke the development of health disorders. In particular, they cause fear of social and work stigmatization due to infection with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), fear of suffering or death during COVID-19, ear that family members will become infected, erroneous conclusions about someone deliberately exaggerating the dangers of COVID-19, feeling of injustice and incorrectness of the quarantine measures, household discomfort and organizational stress. These experiences change the subjective picture of the future of combatants, and this provokes the development or exacerbation of pre-existing mental and somatic disorders. The impact of information on COVID-19 on combatant health disorders was investigated.
Conclusions: The authors believe that this knowledge will help to develop special psychoprophylactic approaches that would prevent the development of mental and somatic disorders due to the COVID-19 pandemic and improve the quality of quarantine measures. It will also allow measures to be taken to prevent a reduction in the army’s combat effectiveness through a pandemic and quarantine.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Original Article

ELECTRON J GEN MED, Volume 20, Issue 1, February 2023, Article No: em442

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/12734

Publication date: 01 Jan 2023

Online publication date: 23 Dec 2022

Article Views: 1016

Article Downloads: 731

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