Depression and Suicide Risk during the Covid-19 Pandemic in a Brazilian Public Health Psychosocial Addiction Care Center: A Preliminary Report

Objective To evaluate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on depressive symptoms and suicide risk among patients undergoing treatment in a Public Health Psychosocial Addiction Care Center (CAPS AD III) of Porto Alegre. Methods Questions retrieved from the Coronavirus Health Impact Survey (CRISIS), translated into Brazilian Portuguese, were used to evaluate the perceptions and behaviors of 70 patients about the covid-19 pandemic. Validated Brazilian versions of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were used to evaluate the severity of depressive symptoms, suicide risk and anxiety symptoms. A multilogistic regression model was performed to evaluate predictors of suicide risk in the sample. Results Around 70% of patients reported moderate depressive symptoms, 30% severe depressive symptoms, 17% of patients reported suicide or death thoughts in more than half of the days and 10% reported it daily. History of alcohol use was identified as the main predictor of suicide risk in the logistic regression model (OR 13.0, p = 0.03). Conclusions Individuals with history of alcohol consumption presented with significantly higher suicide risk scores in a psychosocial public health care center in Brazil during covid-19 pandemic. This result can be important to devise better strategies and interventions to support this specific population profile.