Mental health and Covid-19: an integrative literature review

Abstract

The new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is a reality in Brazil and worldwide and has
potential to induce psychological symptoms. The objective of this study was to carry out an
integrative literature review of mental health and pandemics. We used the crossing of the
keywords “mental health AND COVID-19 OR coronavirus OR pandemics AND interventions
in mental health OR psychotropic OR psychiatric symptoms OR psychopathologies OR
protective factor in mental health ” in SciELO, Bireme and PubMed databases, with 1642
articles published in Portuguese, English and Spanish published between 2015 to 2020. 43
articles were selected, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, all articles were
published in 2020 and referred to the COVID-19 pandemic. Depressive and anxious symptoms,
stress and insomnia were frequently reported and were related to being a health professional,
young adult, woman, low level of education and income, history of chronic illness or psychiatric
disorder and high media exposure. Some psychological interventions can be used to minimize the
negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition, protective factors can be explored to
reduce damage to mental health of individuals and communities.