Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented multimodal (health, occupational, economic, and social) crisis, which will impact developing countries. Confinement as a preventive measure is itself a threat that produces a social impact. Pandemic and confinement have become a psychosocial adversity factor that affects families and their children. During the pandemic, children and adolescents with a psychiatric disorder may experience exacerbation of their symptoms. However, little is known about this, since studies on this population during the pandemic are scarce. Objective To review the data available in the current literature on the effect of the pandemic on children and adolescents with a previous psychiatric disorder. Methods A literature search was carried out using PubMed, Scielo and, due to the exceptional conditions of the pandemic situation, directly using internet search engines. Both English and Spanish papers were included. Results The information found is presented in the following sections: family and children during the pandemic, evaluation of mental disorders in children and young people during the pandemic, pre-existing psychiatric disorders during the pandemic, and telepsychiatric care. Specific information is presented on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The current pandemic due to COVID-19 and confinement are a psychosocial adversity that threatens the stability of the family. Such a stressor can cause exacerbation of symptoms of a previous mental disorder. Children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders are a vulnerable population and require specialised care. Telepsychiatry is becoming a modality with multiple advantages.

Narrative Review of COVID-19 Impact on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Child, Adolescent and Adult Clinical Populations

“…The main objective is to analyze all the empirical contributions published after March 2020 that dealt with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on OCD in adults, children and adolescents and to provide a synthesis of the current literature. We discuss findings from studies that analyze the impact of COVID-19 in OCD according to the most recent published reviews [e.g., (49,50)] that provide insight into the pandemic's implications for OCD symptoms up until last summer. For instance, in their review Sulaimani and Bagadood (49) assessed various sources regarding OC symptoms and the pandemic via a study of literature related to OCD conditions.…”

Stress and anxiety among adolescents, during the covid-19 outbreak

“…Most of the adolescents feel anxious about the situation of Covid-19 (Guessoum et al, 2020;Sahoo et al, 2020;Smirni et al, 2020), and the virus' spread brings about the fear of death or infection (Fido et al, 2020). In addition, social media factors and the intensity of internet access have the capacity to influence anxiety in adolescents during the covid-19 pandemic (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011;Londoño-Herrera et al, 2020). Based on this study, the average adolescent anxiety is in the very heavy category.…”

Sobre COVID-19, estrés y el cerebro de los adolescentes

“…Señor Editor, La interesante revisión de Cuadra-Martínez y colaboradores 1 destaca la necesidad de comprender el comportamiento psicológico durante las pandemias, dimensión que debe orientar las medidas políticas de control y las intervenciones psicológicas y de salud en general, de modo que sean efectivas para el manejo de la pandemia por COVID-19. Un grupo etario psicológicamente vulnerable este contexto son los adolescentes 2 . La adolescencia conlleva profundos cambios en los sistemas fisiológicos y neuroendocrinos, junto con la reorganización de los sistemas neuronales necesarios para una adecuada función ejecutiva, procesamiento socioemocional y regulación de las emociones 3 .…”

“…La adolescencia conlleva profundos cambios en los sistemas fisiológicos y neuroendocrinos, junto con la reorganización de los sistemas neuronales necesarios para una adecuada función ejecutiva, procesamiento socioemocional y regulación de las emociones 3 . Los adolescentes, por tanto, se encuentran en un estadio crítico de desarrollo neurobiológico, de alta neuroplasticidad, que puede ser afectado por distintos factores es-tresores 2,3 . La presente carta tiene por objetivo comentar cómo el estrés ocasionado por COVID-19 puede afectar el desarrollo del cerebro adolescente.…”

“…Por otra parte, durante el desarrollo de la pandemia -y también una vez ésta finalice-los adolescentes pueden verse afectados por trastorno de estrés postraumático 2 , el cual implica alteraciones psicológicas duraderas atribuidas a la experiencia de un evento traumático importante, por ejemplo, la muerte de un familiar, su hospitalización o meses de confinamiento en sus hogares, sin poder socializar (Figura 1). Se sabe que el trastorno de estrés postraumático es frecuente y Figura 1.…”