The next pandemic: impact of COVID-19 in mental healthcare assistance in a nationwide epidemiological study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies have reported the worsening of psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have evaluated the impact on the access to mental health services during COVID-19. Our aim was to analyze temporal trends and prediction of appointments held in Brazil's public health system, to compare the observed and expected number of mental healthcare appointments during the COVID-19 pandemics.

Methods

An ecological time-series study was performed, analyzing mental health appointments before and during the pandemic (from 2016 and 2020) from the Brazilian governmental database. The structural break in the data series was assessed using the Chow test, with the break considered in March 2020. Bayesian structural time-series models were used to estimate

SUBMITTER: Ornell F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8427141 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature