Incidence of mental and behavioral disorders due to the use of alcohol in the state of Tocantins associated with the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

With the pandemic status declared on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization, countries adopted non-pharmacological social protective measures. The article relates how the pandemic directly entailed to the increase in the number of hospitalizations for mental illness associated with alcohol use, relating the difference of age groups, gender and the spending of the public health system in this area referring to the years 2018 to 2020 in the state of Tocantins. This is a descriptive quantitative epidemiological study, the data were obtained through the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System in the periods 2018 to 2020. After analyzing the data, it was possible to observe a 41.41% increase in the number of hospitalizations in the year 2020, being mostly men between 40 and 49 years old. Furthermore, there was an increase in the amounts spent on hospital services, where there is a causal relationship of a decline between the amounts spent in 2018 to 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. In the year 2019 to 2020, there was a 51% increase. Therefore, there was an increase in the events examined in this paper, which may be related to a worsening mental health of this population due to the social isolation measures implemented in the world. Thus, it is necessary that the Family Health team program in Primary Care has an efficient and satisfactory preparation to serve this population in order to prevent these excessive expenses in Public Health that are avoidable.