The next pandemic: impact of COVID-19 in mental healthcare assistance in a nationwide epidemiological study

The Lancet Regional Health. Americas

Daniela Benzano¹  Anne Orgler Sordi²  Wyllians Vendramini Borelli²  Juliana Nichterwitz Scherer²  Lisia von Diemen³  Felipe Ornell³  Felix Henrique Paim Kessler³  Helena Ferreira Moura³  Jaqueline Bohrer Schuch⁴ 

[1] Corresponding author: Felipe Ornell. Center for Drug and Alcohol Research, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Ramiro Barcelos Street, 2350, Santa Cecilia, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, Zip code 90035-903. Tel.: [phone].;Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate Program in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Ramiro Barcelos Street, 2350, Santa Cecilia, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil;Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Center for Drug and Alcohol Research, Ramiro Barcelos Street, 2350, Santa Cecilia, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil;Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Neurology Service, Ramiro Barcelos Street, 2350, Santa Cecilia, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil;

关键词: Covid-19;    Mental health;    Appointments;    Public health system;    Psychiatric hospitalization;    SARS-CoV-2;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Studies have reported the worsening of psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have evaluated the impact on the access to mental health services during COVID-19. Our aim was to analyze temporal trends and prediction of appointments held in Brazil's public health system, to compare the observed and expected number of mental healthcare appointments during the COVID-19 pandemics. Methods: An ecological time-series study was performed, analyzing mental health appointments before and during the pandemic (from 2016 and 2020) from the Brazilian governmental database. The structural break in the data series was assessed using the Chow test, with the break considered in March 2020. Bayesian structural time-series models were used to estimate current average appointments and the predicted expectation if there was no pandemic. Findings: Compared to the expected, between March and August 2020 about 28% less outpatient appointments in mental health were observed, totaling 471,448 individuals with suspended assistance. Group appointments and psychiatric hospitalizations were also severely impacted by the pandemic (decreased of 68% and 33%, respectively). On the other hand, mental health emergency consultations and home care increased during this period (36% and 52%, respectively). Interpretation: Our findings demonstrate a dramatic change in mental health assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, which corroborates a recent WHO survey. This phenomenon can aggravate the mental health crisis and generate a parallel pandemic that may last for a longer time than the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding: This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

【 授权许可】

Unknown