To determine if the initial COVID-19 societal restrictions, introduced in Ireland in March 2020, impacted on the number and nature of psychiatry presentations to the emergency department (ED) of a large academic teaching hospital.

We examined anonymised clinical data of psychiatry presentations to the ED during the initial 8-week period of COVID-19 restrictions. Data from corresponding 8-week periods in 2018 and 2019 were also extracted for comparison.

Psychiatry presentations to ED reduced by 21% during the COVID-19 restrictions, from 24/week to 19/week when compared with corresponding periods in 2018/2019 (Poisson’s Rate Test estimate of difference −5.2/week, 95% CI 1.3–9.1, p = 0.012). Numbers attending for out-of-hours assessment remained unchanged (81 v. 80), but numbers seeking assessment during normal hours decreased (71 v. 114). We observed increased presentations from the <18 age group, but decreased presentations from the 18 to 29 age group (Pearson’s Chi-Square 20.363, df = 6, p = 0.002). We recorded an increase in anxiety disorders during the initial COVID-19 restrictions (31 v. 23), and a reduction in alcohol disorders (28 v. 52). The proportion of presentations with suicidal ideation (SI) or self-harm as factors remained unchanged.

Rates of emergency presentation with mental illness reduced during the initial COVID-19 restrictions. This may represent an unmet burden of mental health needs. Younger people may be experiencing greater distress and mental illness during the current crisis. More people sought help for anxiety disorders during the COVID-19 restrictions compared with corresponding data from 2018 and 2019.

To examine the psychological and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on a cohort of patients with severe and enduring mental illness treated with clozapine.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 63 individuals attending a clozapine clinic within the Galway–Roscommon Mental Health Services to determine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on anxiety and depressive symptoms, social and occupational functioning and quality of life, by utilising Likert scale data. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) were additionally utilised to measure anxiety symptoms cross-sectionally.

Anxiety symptoms were low with a median BAI score of 4.0 and HAM-A score of 4.0. Likert scale measurements recorded only a modest adverse impact of COVID-19 restrictions on anxiety and depressive symptoms, quality of life and occupational and social functioning. Free-text comments from patients (n = 55), were grouped into five themes: neutral impact (n = 22), negative psychological impact (n = 13), negative social impact (n = 11), positive psychological impact (n = 5) and media coverage inducing anxiety (n = 4).

Three months into the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions, the impact on individuals with treatment-resistant psychotic disorders attending a clozapine clinic has been modest, with preliminary evidence demonstrating minimal increases in subjective symptoms of anxiety and reduced social functioning. Reduced social engagements and supports attainable both within the community and from mental health services were noted by some participants.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by recurring crises, hospitalisations, self-harm, suicide attempts, addictions, episodes of depression, anxiety and aggression and lost productivity. The objective of this study is to determine the use of direct health care resources by persons with BPD in Ireland and the corresponding costs.

This prevalence-based micro-costing study was undertaken on a sample of 196 individuals with BPD attending publicly funded mental health services in Ireland. All health care costs were assessed using a resource utilisation questionnaire completed by mental health practitioners. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis, using a Monte Carlo simulation, was performed to examine uncertainty.

Total direct healthcare cost per individual was €10 844 annually (ranging from 5228 to 20 609). Based on a prevalence of 1% and an adult population (18–65 years) of 2.87 million, we derived that there were 28 725 individuals with BPD in Ireland. Total yearly cost of illness was calculated to be up to €311.5 million.

There is a dearth of data on health care resource use and costs of community mental health services in Ireland. The absence of this data is a considerable constraint to research and decision-making in the area of community mental health services. This paper contributes to the limited literature on resource use and costs in community mental health services in Ireland. The absence of productivity loss data (e.g. absenteeism and presenteeism), non-health care costs (e.g. addiction treatment), and indirect costs (e.g. informal care) from study participants is a limitation of this study.

This study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on presentations to an acute hospital with self-harm.

All presentations to University Hospital Galway with self-harm were assessed during the peak period of the coronavirus crisis in Ireland, over the 3 months from 1 March to 31 May 2020. These data were compared with presentations in the same months in the 3 years preceding (2017–2019). Data were obtained from the anonymised service database.

This study found that in 2020, the rate of presentation with self-harm dropped by 35% from March to April and rose by 104% from April to May, peaking from mid-May. When trends over a 4-year period were examined, there was a significantly higher lethality of attempt (p < 0.001), and significant differences in diagnosis (p = 0.031) in 2020 in comparison with the three previous years. The increased lethality of presentations remained significant after age and gender were controlled for (p = 0.036). There were also significant differences in the underlying psychiatric diagnoses (p = 0.018), notably with a significant increase in substance misuse disorders presenting during the 2020 study period.

COVID-19 showed a reduction in self-harm presentations initially, followed by a sharp increase in May 2020. If a period of economic instability follows as predicted, it is likely that this will further impact the mental health of the population, along with rates of self-harm and suicidal behaviours. There is a need for research into the longer-term effect of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions, especially with respect to self-harm.

There appears to be a higher rate of prevalence of hyperkinetic disorder in the intellectual disability (ID) population, although there is a large variability in rates in previous studies. Hyperkinetic disorder can be a challenge to diagnose in a population with ID and can present a barrier to the development of the activities of daily living in an already vulnerable population.

Our objective was to examine the point prevalence of hyperkinetic disorder in the ID population in a community ID service and also to determine the prevalence of hyperkinetic disorder based on the level of ID.

A cross-sectional review of the Online Information Service ‘OLIS’ database was undertaken to establish the total number of patients with ID and those with comorbid hyperkinetic disorder. The overall point prevalence and prevalence based on the level of ID was calculated from the collected data.

The point prevalence of hyperkinetic disorder in the population with ID was similar to that found in studies in the general population at 3.1% in adults and 32.6% in children. When divided by the level of disability, the calculated point prevalence in both adults and children was highest in the population with mild ID and decreased as the level of disability increased.

This report contributes to previous research establishing the rates of hyperkinetic disorder in an ID population and establishes the point prevalence of hyperkinetic disorder in individuals diagnosed with ID in a clinical sample.

To examine if the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with a differential effect over time in relation to its psychological and social impact on patients with established anxiety disorders.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 individuals attending the Galway–Roscommon Mental Health Services with an International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnosis of an anxiety disorder at two time points (six months apart) to determine the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on anxiety and depressive symptoms, social and occupational functioning and quality of life.

No statistical difference in symptomatology was noted between the two time points in relation to anxiety symptoms as measured by utilising psychometric rating scales (BAI and HARS) or utilising a Likert scale. The greatest impact of COVID-19 at both time points is related to social functioning and quality of life. Significant variability was noted for individual participants. Qualitative analysis noted social isolation, concern for the participants’ future and increased difficulty managing anxiety with ongoing restrictions.

No significant overall change in symptomatology or functioning over time was noted for individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders. Variability was, however, demonstrated between individuals, with some individuals describing ongoing anxiety, social isolation and concern for their future. Identifying those with ongoing symptoms or distress and providing multidisciplinary support to this cohort is suggested.

Patients with major mental illness are recognised to be at risk of premature death for a multitude of reasons. This initiative aimed to improve the physical health monitoring of patients prescribed depot antipsychotic medication in a catchment area of ~36 000 in Ireland.

International best practice recommends monitoring of blood tests, physical parameters such as weight, BMI, waist circumference and blood pressure, and side effects of patients prescribed antipsychotic medication. A clinic was established to target these interventions.

A cohort of patients receiving antipsychotics in long-acting injectable form was chosen. A twice-yearly, multidisciplinary health monitoring clinic was established. Evaluation involved an audit of medical records which measured the proportion of those attending the clinic who had blood test monitoring and physical parameters recorded.

Before the clinic’s implementation, 30% of patients had evidence of some blood test monitoring, 9% had evidence of complete blood testing and one patient had evidence of physical health parameters having been recorded. One year after the implementation 78% of patients had evidence of some blood test monitoring, 61% had evidence of full blood test monitoring and 100% had evidence of physical parameters recorded.

The clinic was positively received by patients, and led to improved teamwork. Recommendations include organising concurrent psychiatric and phlebotomy clinics so that patients may avail of psychiatric review and blood testing at a single appointment. As a result of the increased focus on physical health monitoring, a similar project is planned to target all patients prescribed antipsychotics.

We aimed to assess the incidence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in people with schizophrenia, to explore clinical associates with OSA and how well OSA screening tools perform in this population.

All patients registered in a community outpatient Clozapine clinic, between January 2014 and March 2016, were consecutively approached to participate. Participants were screened for OSA using at home multichannel polysomnography (PSG) and were diagnosed with OSA if the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) was >10 events/hr. Univariate comparison of participants to determine whether AHI > 10 events/hr was associated with demographic factors, anthropometric measures and psychiatric symptoms and cognition was performed. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the commonly used sleep symptoms scales and OSA screening tools were also determined.

Thirty participants were recruited, 24 men and 6 women. Mean age was 38.8 (range: 25–60), and mean body mass index (BMI) was 35.7 (range 19.9–62.1). The proportion of participants with OSA (AHI > 10 events/hr) was 40%, 18 (60%) had no OSA, 4 (13%) had mild OSA (AHI 10.1–20), zero participants had moderate OSA (AHI 20.1–30) and 8 (27%) had severe OSA (AHI > 30). Diagnosis of OSA was significantly associated with increased weight, BMI, neck circumference and systolic blood pressure. Diagnosis of OSA was not significantly associated with Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale, Montgomery Asperger’s Depression Rating Scale, Personal and Social Performance scale or Brief Assessment of Cognition for Schizophrenia scores. All OSA screening tools demonstrated poor sensitivity and specificity for a diagnosis of OSA.

OSA was highly prevalent in this cohort of people with schizophrenia and was associated with traditional anthropometric OSA risk factors.

There is renewed interest in the inverse association between psychiatric hospital and prison places, with reciprocal time trends shown in more than one country. We hypothesised that the numbers of admissions to psychiatric hospitals and committals to prisons in Ireland would also correlate inversely over time (i.e. dynamic measures of admission and committal rather than static, cross-sectional numbers of places).

Publicly available activity statistics for psychiatric hospitals and prisons in Ireland were collated from 1986 to 2010.

There was a reciprocal association between psychiatric admissions and prison committals (Pearson r=−0.788, p<0.001), an increase of 91 prison committals for every 100 psychiatric hospital admissions foregone.

Penrose’s hypothesis applies to admissions to psychiatric hospitals and prisons in Ireland over time (dynamic measures), just as it does to the numbers of places in psychiatric hospitals and prisons in Ireland and elsewhere (static, cross-sectional measures). Although no causal connection can be definitively established yet, mentally disordered prisoners are usually known to community mental health services. Psychiatric services for prisons and the community should be linked to ensure that the needs of those currently accessing care through prisons can also be met in the community.

The aim of this study is to test the psychometric properties of the Spanish validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) in a Paraguayan population.

Participants were recruited through an Internet-based survey. All participants whose scores in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and The Fear Questionnaire (FQ) were greater than zero were included. 1245 subjects responded voluntarily: 1077 subjects, scoring >0, were considered.

To establish construct validity of the FCV-19S, an exploratory factor analysis was performed using the KMO test, which was adequate, and the Bartlett sphericity test, which was significant (p <.0001). The CFI, NFI, GFI, TLI and RMSEA indices were used to evaluate the model and showed good adjustment. Cronbach’s α showed valid internal consistency (α = 0.86). This validation was supported by significant correlation (p <.001) with the HADS scale for anxiety and depression and with the FQ scale for specific phobia.

The Spanish version of the FCV-19S is a 7-item scale with two dimensions, psychological symptoms and physiological symptoms, which demonstrated robust psychometric properties in a Paraguayan population.

To examine the psychological and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with established anxiety disorders during a period of stringent mandated social restrictions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals attending the Galway-Roscommon Mental Health Services with an International Classification of Diseases diagnosis of an anxiety disorder to determine the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on anxiety and mood symptoms, social and occupational functioning and quality of life.

Twelve (40.0%) participants described COVID-19 restrictions as having a deleterious impact on their anxiety symptoms. Likert scale measurements noted that the greatest impact of COVID-19 related to social functioning (mean = 4.5, SD = 2.9), with a modest deleterious effect on anxiety symptoms noted (mean = 3.8, SD = 2.9). Clinician rated data noted that 8 (26.7%) participants had disimproved and 14 (46.7%) participants had improved since their previous clinical review, prior to commencement of COVID-19 restrictions. Conditions associated with no ‘trigger’, such as generalised anxiety disorder, demonstrated a non-significant increase in anxiety symptoms compared to conditions with a ‘trigger’, such as obsessive compulsive disorder. Psychiatric or physical comorbidity did not substantially impact on symptomatology secondary to COVID-19 mandated restrictions.

The psychological and social impact of COVID-19 restrictions on individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders has been modest with only minimal increases in symptomatology or social impairment noted.