POST-COVID-19 PANDEMIC: PSYCHIATRIC AND SOCIAL IMPACTS AND THE INCREASE IN PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS

Abstract

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden advance of the coronavirus, fear and uncertainty spread among the population and health professionals who worked on the front line of care. Thus, this group of people was exposed to various feelings, including anxiety, depression and mood disorders, due to changes in routine activities, deaths, lack of infrastructure for treatments and even domestic violence. In view of this new reality, interventions were created to contain such emotional crises and, consequently, there was an increase in the use of psychotropic drugs during and after this pandemic period. Among the interventions, psychological and psychiatric interventions stand out, which had to be taken due to several impasses, especially due to social isolation. Isolation that also resulted in several post-pandemic complications, such as weight gain scenarios with pharmacological therapies for weight loss, as well as the implementation of the technological environment in various work environments, including the health area. Thus, it could be seen that the pandemic has caused numerous consequences in the daily life of humanity and the vast majority are closely related to feelings of depression and anxiety. Therefore, the article aims at the increase in psychiatric sequelae during and after the Covid-19 pandemic linked to the use of psychotropic drugs and the greater establishment of telemedicine.