Anxiety and depression in patients with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 in Ecuador

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 throughout the world has forced local and national administrations to take unprecedented measures to reduce the impact of the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) pandemic. In South America, the arrival of the virus took longer than in other regions of the world, nevertheless, the impact has already been unprecedent. For instance, Ecuador was one of the most affected countries by the pandemic, reported hundreds of deaths each day during the last weeks of March and the first weeks of April 2020. The mortality rates were high during these months due to late implementation of restrictive measures of social distancing and limited capacity of health services (testing capacities and contact tracing). In this scenario, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) established an epidemiological surveillance program for COVID-19 confirmed and suspected patients. The Department of Mental Health at the MoPH in Ecuador lead an active surveillance of the emotional impact of the disease by deploying an online self-reporting tool among patients to identify needs and provide standard of care treatment. The authors of this study were asked to participate in the development of this survey. The tool recorded sociodemographic variables and responses from two questionnaires: the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to measure the presence and severity of depressive symptoms, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) to assess the presence and severity of anxiety symptoms.