The covid-19 pandemic and the impact on individuals with mental disorders: an integrative review

The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the mental health of the general population and of people with previous mental disorders. Objective: to verify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of individuals with preexisting mental disorders. Method: integrative review, performed through the search in the databases Virtual Health Library (VHL), Medical Publications (PubMed), Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), American Psychological Association (PsycINFO), Scopus (Elsevier), SciELO, Portal CAPES and Medline. The descriptors “COVID-19”, “pandemic”, “coronavirus”, “mental health”, “mental disorder” and “patients” were used in English and Portuguese languages. Until August 2020, 862 articles were identified and 110 of them were selected for abstract reading. After the inclusion criteria were applied, 14 articles comprised the final sample of the review. Results: women are more vulnerable to concerns and fears about the pandemic, as well as older people with low education. Exacerbation of symptoms already controlled in patients occurred in all studies. Anxiety, anguish, fear, irritation and depressive symptoms were the most present feelings. Conclusion: the existence of a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was identified in patients with preexisting mental disorders and this impact occurred in different types of mental disorders.