COMPARISON OF INPATIENT PSYCHIATRIC CARE FOR SARS-COV-2 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ADULTS IN VIENNA

Abstract Introduction The structure of psychiatric care has undergone many changes in the last decades. In addition, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has posed specific challenges for inpatient psychiatric care. In Vienna, the admission of SARS-CoV-2 positive psychiatric patients has been centralised in one department, the 1st Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine, Klinik Hietzing. Aims To investigate the extent to which admissions of SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients differ with regard to medication, age, sex, diagnosis, need for involuntary admission, duration of treatment, country of birth, and where patients come from and where they are discharged to. Methods Between 15 March 2020 and 21 May 2022 (start and end of cohorting of all Vienna SARS-CoV- 2 positive inpatients in one department), 338 SARS-CoV-2 positive and 1312 SARS-CoV-2 negative patients were treated as inpatients at the 1st Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine of Klinik Hietzing. Results The results of the study are presented. Conclusions The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was a major challenge for inpatient psychiatry. A precise differentiation of the treatment of positive and negative patients is important for the assessment of the impact of the pandemic.