Evaluation of the Perceptions about the Covid-19 Pandemic of Patients with the Diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Qualitative Study Fires again, me again

Abstract: Covid-19 pandemic has raised concerns about how to deal

with the psychiatric aspects of the pandemic and it was a matter of

curiosity how the perceptions of individuals who already had a

psychiatric diagnosis would be, especially a vulnerable diagnosis of

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). We aimed to explore the

perceptions about Covid-19 pandemic in a sample of individuals

with the diagnosis of GAD. Qualitative data was obtained using a

semi-structured interview questionnaire by a psychiatrist with 33

individuals diagnosed with GAD. 14 (42.4 %) of the participants

were male, 19 (57.6 %) were female. Average age was 34.7. 7 (21.2

%) participants had Covid-19 infection. Three main themes were

determined as "learning from the pandemic process", "impact of the

pandemic process on changes in personal development", "effects on

the psychiatric treatment process". Sub-themes; 'value of health',

'patience', 'importance of cleanliness and hygiene', 'changing world',

'difficulties of staying at home', 'necessity of preparing yourself for

the worst', 'people are no good for anyone but themselves', 'things

happen to happen' 'learning to be happy with little things', 'being able

to read more books', 'uncertainty', 'spending time with children',

'enduring', 'discipline', 'negativities added to health', 'no changes',

'fires again, me again', and 'worsening with stress factor', ' awareness

', 'experience', 'helped-it, it was good' have been detected. People

with the diagnosis of GAD may be particularly vulnerable to the

psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But their positive

and negative appraisals and coping behaviours could prevent or

ameliorate future problems