Coronavirus and its implications for psychiatry: a rapid review of the early literature

Cabrera, Maximilliam A.; Karamsetty, Lakshmipriya; Simpson, Scott A.

BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus pandemic has changed healthcare rapidly and dramatically. We provide a critical synthesis of the scientific literature on the pandemic’s implications for psychiatric practice. METHODS: A rapid literature review was undertaken to identify scientific literature linking psychiatric outcomes and practice changes due to coronavirus and the disease it causes (COVID-19). A structured quality assessment was used to assess those articles reporting quantitative data. RESULTS: Fifty articles were identified for inclusion, but only 12 contained original data. Eleven of those twelve were rated as poor quality. The literature described psychiatric sequelae of the coronavirus and related public health interventions through cross-sectional surveys among different populations; no studies include diagnostic or functional impairment data. Populations at risk include COVID-19 survivors, healthcare workers, the elderly, and those with pre-existing psychiatric disease. Impacts on psychiatric practice were described, again without data on changes to quality or access of care. CONCLUSIONS: There is a quickly accumulating body of evidence on the psychiatric implications of coronavirus including psychological effects on the general public and at-risk subgroups. Similarly, psychiatric practice has witnessed substantial adaptation to the pandemic. However, these reports are largely anecdotal at this point. Few data characterize these trends, and the early scientific findings are of generally poor quality.