Brief psychotherapeutic intervention in Caribbean Medicine students with psychological reactions due to impact of the COVID-19

• Main Authors: Alberto Erconvaldo Cobián Mena, Adolfo Rafael Lambert Delgado, Michel Torres Leyva, Irsel Antonio Camejo Santa Cruz Pacheco, Sergio Del Valle Díaz
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Centro Provincial de Información de Ciencias Médicas 2020-09-01
• Series: Medisan
• Subjects: covid-19; estudiantes de medicina; salud mental; ansiedad; depresión.
• Online Access: http://medisan.sld.cu/index.php/san/article/view/3220

Introduction: The propagation of the COVID-19 and its exponential growth as pandemic, extended to all the regions of the world, has been, undoubtedly, a social, psychological and physiologic stressor without precedents. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the brief psychotherapy in a group of Caribbean Medicine students.  Methods: A monocentric study of psychotherapeutic intervention was carried out in 16 Caribbean students from the No. 1 Medicine Faculty in the University of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba, during April, 2020, which presented diverse psychological and/or psychopathological signs due to the impact of COVID-19. The depression self-appraisal scale of Zung-Conde and IDARE was applied to all of them to evaluate the state of anxiety before and after the treatment; a semistructured interview was also carried out to deepen in the problem and to determine the emotional performance and the generating situations of those states. Results: The predominant sex was the female and the age range of more frequency was that of 20-30 years. After the intervention it existed a tacit reduction of the anxiety levels and the depressive symptoms, and there was a favorable clinical course. Conclusions: The psychotherapeutic intervention was effective, because it directly acted on the aspects related to the disease that instill fear to the students, and a good clinical answer was achieved.