Methods: Telephone interviews were carried out with 776 patients over the age of 65 who had a mental disorder. A sociodemographic data form, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the General Anxiety Disorder-7 were employed to evaluate their psychological complaints.
Results: A total of 733 patients (94.5%) were unable to go to outpatient visits, although 607 (78.2%) patients used their medications regularly. The most important factor contributing to continue drug treatment was the extension of drug reports by the government. There was an increase in psychiatric complaints in 318 (41.0%) patients. Anxiety (23.7%), insomnia (17.0%), and depression (13.3%) were the most common complaints. 72.7% of the patients wanted to have an online consultation with their psychiatrist. Predictors for depression were increased age and female gender. Predictors for anxiety were disease duration of five years or more and irregular medication intake during the pandemic.
Conclusion: The high-risk groups in terms of increasing psychiatric complaints must be identified for psychosocial interventions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, government policies on the health system played an important role in ensuring continued treatment for geriatric psychiatric patients. It is also important to be able to conduct online psychiatric consultations during extraordinary situations.
Keywords : COVID-19; Mental Disorder; Aged; Depression; Anxiety