PANDEMIA DA COVID-19: O AUMENTO DOS CASOS DE ANSIEDADE E DEPRESSÃO NA COMUNIDADE UNIVERSITÁRIA

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has established itself as a health challenge at a global level, with the WHO defining that response measures should be implemented as quickly as possible so that there is no incidence of new cases of the disease. The governing authorities established mandatory restrictions on the operation of most places where there could be crowds of people, such as, for example, shopping malls, schools and universities. With regard to the university community, these restrictions had a significant impact on their lives, impacting them in several ways […]. Therefore, the objective of this research is to highlight, through studies, the increase in cases of anxiety and depression in university students during and after the pandemic. The present study is an integrative review of the literature, whose function is to delimit results from previous studies on the proposed subject. The research was carried out in the following databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scielo Portal, Google Scholar and the PAHO/WHO website. With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities restricted their operations due to social distancing, completely changing the student scenario. Several studies carried out during the pandemic highlighted the repercussions on the mental health of the academic community, revealing prevalent feelings of impotence, anguish, fear of losing family and friends, irritability and sadness, increasing susceptibility to anxiety, depression and other disorders. Therefore, an emerging focus on mental health in the post-pandemic period is crucial as risk factors continue to significantly impact diverse areas of society.