Silvana Batista Gaino¹, Bezerra de Andrade²
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 an international public health emergency in January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020. According to data from the Ministry of Health in Brazil, currently confirmed cases are 292.790 and the number of dead 19.309. Simulations carried out in an April 2020 study already suggested that non-pharmaceutical interventions would be decisive in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and the underreporting that already existed would challenge the management of the pandemic. Up to the present moment, Brazil has managed to overcome all expectations related to facing and managing the pandemic. This study aimed to investigate probable psychological symptoms and increased domestic violence, identified during the critical period of the pandemic, in the months of May and June 2020. The instruments used were the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and a brief questionnaire organized for this research, which are being applied in the states of São Paulo and Bahia. Participants, aged between 18 and 60 years, are responding spontaneously to the instruments made available online the results achieved were compared with previous research reports carried out in other countries and which indicated increases in anxiety, depression, harmful use of alcohol and a decrease in mental well-being. It is hoped that the results achieved will assist in a greater understanding of the mental health conditions experienced by Brazilians during the Covid-19 pandemic.
