Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health (literature review)

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) caused by the novel Coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2 was firstly identified in December 2019 in China. Later on, in 3 months it got the status of a global pandemic. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) posed a number of new challenges and questions for the population, medicine, and particularly for psychiatry. In many cases, it triggered a psychogenic beginning of mental, psychosomatic and somatic diseases. The initial pathogenesis of the mental diseases existing among the population has been complicated and sufficiently distorted due to COVID-19. In addition, it acts as the primary reason for the onset of many still unexplored and unknown illness processes, including mental diseases. Nowadays, the relevance of mental health plays an important role in personal, family, working, or social relationships. The rhythm of life and work in modern world demands stable mental health. It should be active, flexible, with sufficient reserve and rapid recovery. Some mental health disorders with the combination of increased information intensity and amount of communication links often lead even employable young people towards a deep lifelong disability. This pushes their active relatives, medical and social staff to their service. As consequence, these challenges pose a plenty of questions to society about the formation of family, parent and social relationships. As a result, COVID-19 and consequences caused by global pandemic require fast, adequate and in-time reaction from local and global societies. Retarded and unequal response can pose the humanity against diverse outcomes of this tragedy. To resume, it can sufficiently decrease the average level of human health all over the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic: new challenges for the mental health protection system

“…This causes negative psychological reactions such as distress and maladaptation [ 51 , 52 , 58 , 59 ]. According to the results of a study conducted in China, which included 1,200 participants, 54% of them rated the impact of COVID-19 as moderate or severe, 29% reported moderate-to-severe anxiety, 17% reported moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, and more than 75% were worried that their relatives might be infected [ 42 , 60 , 61 ]. Another survey involving 53,000 respondents showed that 35% of participants experienced psychological stress: 29% from mild to moderate, and 5% severe [ 62 , 63 ].…”

“…The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially confirmed the existence of the “infodemic” and called for fighting against it, since having covered the whole world it significantly complicated the fight against the real problem of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic [ 42 , 84 ]. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic is the first pandemic in the world history that unfolded in the presence of Facebook and other social networks, and was therefore accompanied by unprecedented panic, the consequences of which significantly worsened the consequences of COVID-19.…”

“…The risk of death by suicide increased by 42% in people with a history of hospitalization for infectious diseases [ 73 , 80 ]. A scientific analysis of suicide mortality in the case of COVID-19 has not yet been conducted but reports of suicides among patients and medical workers have already appeared on the Internet [ 42 ].…”

“…During the pandemic, all hospital residents experienced episodes of non-pathological or pathological anxiety. In a study conducted in the wards of the Zhejiang University Medical School Hospital for patients with COVID-19, it was found that 48% of patients experienced psychological stress (pathological anxiety) upon admission [ 42 , 45 , 58 , 67 , 88 ]. Patients with COVID-19 also experienced organic anxiety, especially at a late stage of disease development, when their lungs were affected (the main cause of both the severity of the condition and its fatal consequences), as was the cardiovascular system, the kidneys, and the central nervous system (78-88% of patients with severe forms of COVID-19) [ 53 , 69 , 70 , 87 , 89 ].…”

An integrated model of psychotherapeutic support in the system of therapy for COVID-19 patients

“…Inevitable changes due to the pandemic situation generate a challenge to create relevant modifications of psychological and psychotherapeutic support. The major challenge of these modifications is highly preserve stability of the treatment environment and continuation of necessary patient's assistance in such strenuous conditions as quarantine [9][10][11].…”