Kakaje Ameer, Mansour Sabina, Ghareeb Amjad
Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria E-mail:
Qatar Med J. 2021 May 3;2021(1):17. doi: 10.5339/qmj.2021.17. eCollection 2021.
Syria has suffered for nine years from a conflict that left over 11.1 million inhabitants in need of humanitarian assistance and over 80% in poverty. A ten-week-long full lockdown was enforced in Syria and successfully minimized the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to estimate the occurrence of mental health disorders after lockdown termination among the citizens of war-torn Syria.
Online questionnaires, which included demographic and war-related questions, Dimensions of Anger Reactions 5 (DAR-5) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were distributed to different social media groups.
This study recruited 1445 participants, of which 515 (35.6%) were males, the mean age was 24.8 ± 6.3 years, 38% had problematic anger, 64% had moderate to very severe depression, 42.9% had moderate to severe anxiety and 39.7% had moderate to severe stress. Increased living expenses, not being able to go out and a reduced ability to earn income and provide food were significantly associated with the psychological burden after the lockdown ( < 0.05). The association of war variables with mental disorders was weaker than the effect of the deteriorating economy. Other healthcare workers had more severe distress than doctors, who themselves were found to have less distress than the general population ( < 0.05). Anger scores were approximately equal, regardless of the type of work. Finally, shisha smoking was associated with worse mental health ( < 0.05).
The psychological burden of the damaged economy surpassed the direct damage due to COVID-19 and the effect of years of conflict. Urgent interventions are required, as this burden may continue for years, if not for decades. A full lockdown in countries with fragile economies may delay the spread of the virus, but it will severely damage the economy, which will lead to a deterioration of the mental health of their citizens.
叙利亚遭受了长达九年的冲突，致使超过1110万居民需要人道主义援助，超过80%的人生活贫困。叙利亚实施了为期十周的全面封锁，并成功将新冠病毒的传播降至最低。本研究旨在估计在饱受战争蹂躏的叙利亚公民解除封锁后心理健康障碍的发生率。
向不同社交媒体群组发放在线问卷，问卷包括人口统计学和与战争相关的问题、愤怒反应维度5（DAR-5）和抑郁焦虑压力量表-21（DASS-21）。
本研究招募了1445名参与者，其中515名（35.6%）为男性，平均年龄为24.8±6.3岁，38%的人有愤怒问题，64%的人有中度至非常严重的抑郁，42.9%的人有中度至重度焦虑，39.7%的人有中度至重度压力。生活费用增加、无法外出以及赚取收入和提供食物的能力下降与封锁后的心理负担显著相关（<0.05）。战争变量与精神障碍的关联比经济恶化的影响要弱。其他医护人员的痛苦比医生更严重，而医生的痛苦又比普通人群少（<0.05）。无论工作类型如何，愤怒得分大致相等。最后，吸食水烟与更差的心理健康相关（<0.05）。
受损经济带来的心理负担超过了新冠疫情造成的直接损害以及多年冲突的影响。需要进行紧急干预，因为这种负担可能会持续数年，甚至数十年。经济脆弱国家的全面封锁可能会延缓病毒传播，但会严重损害经济，进而导致其公民心理健康恶化。
