Abstract

GUERRA, Catarina  and  SILVA, Isabel. Pain and chronic illness during the COVID-19 pandemic: systematic review of literature. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2022, vol.23, n.2, pp.414-418.  Epub Sep 30, 2022. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/22psd230208.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative social, economic, health and national security consequences, in particular for the most vulnerable populations, such as the chronically ill. This systemic review aims to understand the impact of the pandemic on patients with chronic pain. A search was carried out at B-On, using the indexes “chronic pain”, “COVID-19”, “COVID-19 impact” and “chronic disease”, 24 articles were selected. The pandemic has had a significant impact on the lives of patients, who have seen access to healthcare extremely conditioned. Although the monitoring of patients has not completely ceased, and urgent measures have been taken to maintain consultations using alternative routes, the lack of preparation of the health systems and the lack of material resources of the system and of patients ended up having negative repercussions. In general, these conditions generated great psychological and physical suffering for the chronically ill, with an increase in the level/frequency of pain, symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress and, consequently, an increase in medication intake. These results reinforce the need to investigate the impact of the pandemic in all areas in the life of this population and intervene in order to promote the well-being of patients.

Keywords : COVID-19; Chronic pain; Chronic diseases; Adults; Portugal.

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