[Acute effects of the first period of COVID-19 pandemic on mental state].

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic causes psychological trauma in the whole society, thus investigation of the epidemiology of psychiatric symptoms is an outstanding research field during this period. Fear of infection, exposure to updated data on death figures, social isolation, adaptation to new restricting rules, existential crisis, reduction of health care availability poses dangers for mental health. Currently published papers focus on the acute effect of first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, however, further studies on long-term consequences can make this picture more complex and sophisticated. In this review a summary is provided on the most important results concerning frequency of psychiatric symptoms during the first lockdown of COVID-19. In light of the results it can be stated that psychiatric patients showed more common and more intensive symptoms, the number of relapses is increased and the adherence is reduced. Notably, more than the half of the general population produced measurable psychiatric symptoms. Furthermore, a worrying portion of frontline healthcare workers started manifesting mental symptoms. The overall picture suggests that the mental health state shows a global decline on the level of the general society which highlights the urgent need for targeted and complex mental support programs.