Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.

Janusz Heitzman

doi:10.12740/pp/120373

Abstract

Human confrontation with such a stressor as the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, manifested in severe acute respiratory distress, results also in the decrease of fitness and mental resistance on an unprecedented scale and with difficult to estimate consequences [1]. More important than the intensity of the disorder is its prevalence. When we compare our current knowledge of the impact of the pandemic on the development of mental disorders with the findings of research on acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the last 40 years, it may turn out that they are different from each other, the symptomatic spectrum of mental disorders varies and the possibilities of an effective treatment are very limited. We cannot rule out that a new diagnostic category for specific mental disorders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic may emerge in the near future. This paper presents the extent of the impact of the pandemic on the development of mental instability and current diagnostic possibilities. Subpopulations necessary for planning short-term intervention in the organisational, informative and medical areas were identified. A psychiatric guide for immediate support and assistance was proposed.

Highlights

Infectious diseases transmitted from man to man are nothing unusual and have accompanied humanity for centuries
The psychological and psychiatric consequences of the epidemic in our times, with the unprecedented acceleration of virus transmission worldwide as a result of globalization, climate change and the speed of population movement, draw attention to the dominant, subjectively perceived, real or perceived sense of threat coming from the other people, fear, uncertainty and anxiety, and to those individual symptoms that are included in the scope of reactions to traumatic stress
This is an indirectly retrospective conclusion, drawn from the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after trauma in those who previously met the criteria for acute stress disorder

Summary

Introduction

Infectious diseases transmitted from man to man are nothing unusual and have accompanied humanity for centuries. The psychological and psychiatric consequences of the epidemic in our times, with the unprecedented acceleration of virus transmission worldwide as a result of globalization, climate change and the speed of population movement, draw attention to the dominant, subjectively perceived, real or perceived sense of threat coming from the other people, fear, uncertainty and anxiety, and to those individual symptoms that are included in the scope of reactions to traumatic stress. Despite the highest level of distress, it seems that the revealed symptoms of ASD will not cover more than 20% of the population This is an indirectly retrospective conclusion, drawn from the occurrence of PTSD symptoms after trauma in those who previously met the criteria for acute stress disorder. It can be assumed that among those who are unable to cope with trauma and who later reveal severe symptoms, there will be those who are deprived of natural protective mechanisms associated with lack of social support, affected by other mental and somatic disorders, previous traumas, at risk of lack of access to reliable information, deprived of rational crisis management by public services

Diagnosis of mental health disorders

Diagnostic criteria for pandemic acute stress disorder

Areas of intervention

Findings

Conclusions