Psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – what do we know about them?

M. Glinianowicz, D. Ciura, E. Burnatowska, M. Olszanecka-Glinianowicz

Department of Psychology, Social Sciences, and Humanities, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. magolsza@gmail.com

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• Infectious Diseases
• Psychology

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was a shock to the whole world. This pandemic caused not only many deaths of people of all ages and health effects that are still difficult to assess, but also economic, and psychological ones. Numerous studies have shown that chronic stress related to social isolation and fear of contagion increased the rates of development of anxiety, depression syndrome, emotional eating, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The increased rate of substance use and antidepressant drugs has also been observed. Depression is included in the symptoms of long-COVID syndrome. The data on the deterioration of mental states of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly worrying. Some studies have shown increased suicide rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The deterioration of mental health can also have long-term consequences in terms of physical health, for example, emotional eating (EE) associated with depressed mood and anxiety may increase the incidence of binge eating disorder (BED) and addictive eating. Consequently, the number of patients with overweight and obesity and its complications will increase. Problems related to the deterioration of the mental and physical health of the population will increase the burden on the healthcare system. Another important problem is psychological disturbances related to the COVID-19 pandemic developed in healthcare workers. It is necessary to take systemic actions aimed at improving mental health, although it will not be easy in the era of the general global economic crisis, which may deepen the psychological problems from the time of the pandemic. Therefore, the aim of our manuscript is to analyze the available data on the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the general population and healthcare workers.

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