Investigation of Acute Stress Disorder among Patients with Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever

Objective: Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an important infectious disease, which has been seen in Turkey since 2002. The main means of transmission for the disease is contact with ticks. The majority of patients are young people actively working outdoors. The life threatening nature of the disease may lead to negative psychological outcomes among patients who have to live in endemic regions. This study aims to evaluate the presence of acute stress disorder (ASD) symptoms among patients with CCHF.Methods: Patients who were diagnosed in 2010 were included in the study. ASD symptoms were evaluated based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV-TR criteria. χ2 and one-way ANOVA was utilized to conduct statistical analysis in SPSS. Results: A total of 33 patients were included in this study. Only 12 (36.4%) of them had no ASD symptoms while 11 (33.3%) patients was diagnosed with ASD. Ten (30.3%) patients had subclinical symptoms of acute stress (SAS) at various levels. Predicting factors for ASD were found as long duration of hospitalization, bleeding, need of blood transfusions and staying in an intensive care unit. Conclusions: It is important to consider that the patients who have ASD may develop posttraumatic stress disorder in the long term. However, CCHF survivors are not followed up in the long term since relapses and recurrences are not expected. Our findings suggest that the routine psychiatric assessments of CCHF survivors after discharge may be beneficial to diagnose such psychiatric disorders and give medical help if needed.