RESUMO
Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deleterious impact on populations across the world. Yet it remains unclear how this pandemic is affecting the psychological health of people with a previous history of mental illness. Objective(s): This study aims to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on patients with established mental disorders. Method(s): The PubMed and science direct databases were systematically searched using the keywords combination "Covid-19" and "psychiatric disorders", "the pandemic" and "mental disorders ", from inception up to November 2021. We adopted a broad inclusion criterion for the study requiring patients to have a pre-existing mental disorder, excluding narrative reviews and preclinical studies. In addition, a search of google scholar was conducted to identify any additional relevant publications. Result(s): We have found 26 studies but only 19 met our inclusion criteria. Included studies were published between 2020 and 2021. 2 major results were identified. Symptoms deterioration was reported in individuals with severe mental disorders and those with schizophrenia in particular, such as depressive or anxiety symptoms, substance use and suicidal ideation, due to the psychological stress and physical distancing measures associated with the Covid- 19 outbreak. The symptomatic treatments used in Covid-19 had frequent interactions with the most used antipsychotic drugs leading to a substantial increase in relapse rates in people with mental disorders. Conclusion(s): The Covid-19 pandemic has a serious impact on individuals with pre-existing mental illness reinforcing symptom severity and psychological stress. Additional studies are needed to strengthen current findings with pre-pandemic records.
RESUMO
Introduction: A major increase in mental health issues was noted since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic even in patients with no history of mental health illness, specifically brief psychotic disorders. Objective(s): Establish the covid-19 pandemic circumstances as precipitating factors of psychosis independently from other stressors Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study carried out in the psychiatric department of the University Hospital of Mahdia including two groups of patients over a period of 15 months: From October 2018 to December 2019 are pre-covid cases, and the second group consists of the ones admitted between June 2020 and August 2021. We have collected the data of patients diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder according to DSM-5. We have focused on two clinical characteristics of the psychotic episodes (theme of delusions, stressors). Result(s): We have collected 19 patients, 12 among them during the pre-covid period. In our pre-covid period, brief psychotic disorder presented mostly with marked stressors (33.3%) whilst in the middle of the pandemic, marked stressors are present in only 14.3% of the cases. Which could suggest that this state of alarm can singlehandedly trigger psychosis. For the theme of delusions, in the pre-covid period, the religious theme appeared to be the most frequent (58.3%), whilst during the pandemic, persecution became the most prevalent (71.4%), showing how living in fear of contracting the virus could manifest itself in delusional content. Conclusion(s): Living in a prolonged state of alarm is, in itself, a marked stressor, theoretically capable of increasing the psychosis rate and altering its characteristics.