Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health (literature review)

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) caused by the novel Coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2 was firstly identified in December 2019 in China. Later on, in 3 months it got the status of a global pandemic. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) posed a number of new challenges and questions for the population, medicine, and particularly for psychiatry. In many cases, it triggered a psychogenic beginning of mental, psychosomatic and somatic diseases. The initial pathogenesis of the mental diseases existing among the population has been complicated and sufficiently distorted due to COVID-19. In addition, it acts as the primary reason for the onset of many still unexplored and unknown illness processes, including mental diseases. Nowadays, the relevance of mental health plays an important role in personal, family, working, or social relationships. The rhythm of life and work in modern world demands stable mental health. It should be active, flexible, with sufficient reserve and rapid recovery. Some mental health disorders with the combination of increased information intensity and amount of communication links often lead even employable young people towards a deep lifelong disability. This pushes their active relatives, medical and social staff to their service. As consequence, these challenges pose a plenty of questions to society about the formation of family, parent and social relationships. As a result, COVID-19 and consequences caused by global pandemic require fast, adequate and in-time reaction from local and global societies. Retarded and unequal response can pose the humanity against diverse outcomes of this tragedy. To resume, it can sufficiently decrease the average level of human health all over the world.