Prevalence of depression, anxiety, delirium, and post-traumatic stress disorder among COVID-19 patients: protocol for a living systematic review

Background: Previous studies on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of the patients has been limited by the lack of relevant data. With the rapid and sustained growth of the publications on COVID-19 research, we will perform a living systematic review (LSR) to provide comprehensive and continuously updated data to explore the prevalence of depression, anxiety, delirium, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among COVID-19 patients. Methods: We will perform a comprehensive search of the following databases: Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Chinese Biomedicine Literature to identify relevant studies. We will utilize different tools to examine the bias risks (quality) regarding studies of varying design types, such as the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2) for randomized controlled trials (RCT), the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for cohort and case-control studies, etc. The literature searches would be updated every month. We will perform meta-analysis if any new eligible studies or data are obtained and resubmit an updated systematic review if any change in outcomes and heterogeneity is determined after the addition of the new studies. There will be no restrictions on language or year of publication. Discussion: This LSR would provide an in-depth and up-to-date summary of the psychological impact of COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment on the patients. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42020196610