COVID-19 and mental health
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the death of more than 6 million people
worldwide (WHO, 2019). There has been a psychological toll as well, with
a global increase in the prevalence of mental health problems in the
general population (Georgieva et al., 2021, Mortier et al., 2021, Zhang
et al., 2022). Although some studies found no effect of the pandemic on
psychotic symptom levels (Pinkham et al., 2020), distress
(Grossman-Giron et al., 2022), or OCD symptoms (Moreira-de-Oliveira et
al., 2022), most have shown a general worsening in anxiety and
depression levels (Gobbi et al., 2020, Lewis et al., 2022, Quittkat et
al., 2020); distress (Van Rheenen et al., 2020); obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD) symptoms (Benatti et al., 2020, Tükel et al., 2022);
psychotic symptoms and suicidal ideation (Muruganandam et al., 2020,
Strauss et al., 2022, Szmulewicz et al., 2021) in people with
pre-existing mental disorders. This may be due to direct effects of the
pandemic including increased risk of acquiring COVID-19 or having a
worse prognosis once infected (De Hert et al., 2022), which can be
attributed to reduced risk-awareness and non-compliance with preventive
measures (Chevance et al., 2020, Wang et al., 2021), or to having
additional medical comorbidities known to be associated with worse
prognosis (Wang et al., 2021, Tzur Bitan et al., 2021). Reduced access
to services due to lockdowns also likely contributed to symptom
worsening; as well indirect effects of the pandemic (lockdowns and other
mandates, high uncertainty, etc.) on mental patients may have been more
severe compared to the general population (Solé et al., 2021).