COVID-19 is the infectious disease associated with the corona virus SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a COVID-19 pandemic on March 11th 2020, with stringent public health containment measures in Ireland subsequently introduced, based on the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). This has resulted in the non-availability of several potential supports for individuals with mood disorders including fewer face-to-face consultations with their treating clinician and less therapy sessions, particularly those utilising a group format. We want to ascertain if individuals with either bipolar disorder or emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) have been adversely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of these disorders are associated with significant mood symptoms, however mood episodes are usually of greater severity in bipolar disorder with features of poor impulse control, relationship difficulties and self-injurious behaviour more frequently evident in EUPD. We hypothesise that individuals with EUPD will experience more depressive symptoms and have reduced social functioning compared to individuals with bipolar disorder. We wish to ascertain if there is a change in levels of symptoms and functioning over time in the entire cohort of participants and ascertain if any such change is more significant or specific to one of the participant groups. We will assess mood and anxiety symptoms utilising a number of validated and reliable scales and will ascertain participants’ own perspectives in a comments section. This data will be compared with data attained on the same patient cohort approximately 12 and 24 previously.
