Social Functioning in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Patients during COVID-19 Pandemic

During COVID pandemic studies have indicated social functioning is impaired in general population due to the perceived threat of COVID-19 and related lockdown measures. Studies have also suggested that patients with severe mental illness are disproportionately vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic effects on social functioning as compared to general population. Few studies have also suggested that social functioning in patients with severe mental illness was impaired prior to pandemic and there was no exacerbation in the social functioning deficits due to the pandemic. This study was done to assess the social functioning in patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder during the pandemic and to assess the relation between perceived threat due to COVID-19and the social functioning in severe mental illness patients. Materials and Methods: A crossectional assessment in 92 patients with severe mental illness comprising of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder was conducted. Sociodemographic data and clinical data was collected using specifically designed proforma, Brief Psychiatric Rating scale, Young Mania Rating Scale, Hamilton Depression rating scale, Clinical global impression scale, Modified COVID-19 Threat scale and Work and Social Adjustment Scale were administered. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data, Spearmann’s rank correlation was used to find correlation between WSAS and BPRS, YMRS, HAM-D, CGI and CTS and Mann- Whitney U test was used to compare WSAS and the sociodemographic variables. Results: In this sample of 92 patients with severe mental illness 65 patients(70.7%) had significant social functioning impairment and 27 patients( 29.3%) had good functioning during the pandemic. The mean WSAS score was 13.15±7.498. There was more functional impairment for male gender(15.08±6.42) as compared to female gender(11.67±5.976) and it was statistically significant (p=0.024) There was more functional impairment for Bipolar disorder patients(14.78±6.273 ) as compared to Schizophrenia patients (11.30± 6.416) and it was statistically significant (p=0.024). The CTS had a positive correlation with WSAS and was statistical significant (p<0.001) and suggest that COVID-19 related fear and anxiety was associated with significant functional impairment in patients with severe mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: This study suggests that patients with severe mental illness had their social functioning affected during the pandemic and it was significantly more affected in males as compared to females, Bipolar disorder patients had more impairment in social functioning as compared to schizophrenia patients during the pandemic and social functioning deteriorates as COVID-19 related fear and anxiety increases.