Mental health during the Covid 19 pandemic: A challenge in the elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Mental disorders are very frequent in older adults, during the COVID 19 pandemic, this disease has been exacerbated and increasing the vulnerability of this group by modifying their lifestyles. Objective: The objective of this review is to establish and summarize the existing information related to mental health in the elderly during the COVID 19 pandemic. Materials and methods: A systematic review of indexed journals, PubMed, PMC, Elsevier, SciELO was conducted to select scientific articles with relevant content. Results: It has been identified that a significant percentage of older adults suffer from mental health problems. More than 20% of people over 60 years of age suffer from a mental or neural disorder (not counting those manifested by headache) and 6.6% of disability in this age group is attributed to mental disorders and of the nervous system. In short, the crisis because of the pandemic has generated anxiety, depressive, adaptation disorders, whose cognitive and emotional symptoms demand attention, which is why it is necessary to develop strategies to promote personal and community mental health. Conclusions: when human beings reach old age, they present many health problems, which makes it difficult to respond positively to stressors with grave consequences in the bio-psycho-social field. Dementia and depression are the most common neuro-psychiatric disorders at this age, all these factors increase the mortality rate.