Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health: mood and anxiety disorders in patients in a public service in the city of Mineiros – Go

Abstract

This study has evaluated if there was an increase in the numbers of psychiatry appointments at the Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS), in the city of Mineiros, in the state of Goiás, during 2020 in comparison to 2019. A survey on the physical and electronic database of CAPS was carried out, in which information was collected such as age, sex and diagnostic hypothesis (CID10). Charts with inconclusive data, outside the period of 2019 and 2020 and with diagnostic hypothesis that didn’t include mood and/or anxiety disorders were dismissed. A total of 2147 appointments were verified, being 707 in 2019 and 1440 in 2020. In all 2020’s months, the number of appointments was higher in relation to 2019, in which the highest number of appointments per month was concentrated on the second semester of 2020. The female sex was predominant in the appointments (85% in 2019 and 81% in 2020). In 2020 there was an increase in the number of appointments amongst all age groups, the highest number was between 30 to 59 years old, the 40 to 49 range (380; 26,38%) was the most attacked, followed by 50 to 59 (267; 18,54%) and 30 to 39 years (262; 18,19%). These results show a substantial increase in demand for psychiatric care during 2020, specially the second semester, demonstrating the negative impacts of the pandemic over the population’s mental health. The female sex and age between 30 and 59 years were predominant in the appointments in both periods, corroborating with the type of pacient usually more affected by Mood and Anxiety disorders, revealing that the outbreak of COVID-19 did not change this profile. And it was also observed the growth of almost all CID categories analyzed in 2020 compared to 2019, showing that there was a higher increase in the prevalence of Anxiety when compared to Mood Disorders (134% and 41%, respectively).