Joint European policy on the COVID-19 risks for people with mental disorders: An umbrella review and evidence- and consensus-based recommendations for mental and public health.

As COVID-19 becomes endemic, identifying vulnerable population groups for severe infection outcomes and defining rapid and effective preventive and therapeutic strategies remains a public health priority. We performed an umbrella review, including comprehensive studies (meta-analyses and systematic reviews) investigating COVID-19 risk for infection, hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality in people with psychiatric disorders, and outlined evidence- and consensus-based recommendations for overcoming potential barriers that psychiatric patients may experience in preventing and managing COVID-19, and defining optimal therapeutic options and current research priorities in psychiatry. We searched Web of Science, PubMed, and Ovid/PsycINFO databases up to 17 January 2022 for the umbrella review. We synthesized evidence, extracting when available pooled odd ratio estimates for the categories "any mental disorder" and "severe mental disorders." The quality of each study was assessed using the AMSTAR-2 approach and ranking evidence quality. We identified four systematic review/meta-analysis combinations, one meta-analysis, and three systematic reviews, each including up to 28 original studies. Although we rated the quality of studies from moderate to low and the evidence ranged from highly suggestive to non-significant, we found consistent evidence that people with mental illness are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and most importantly mortality, but not of ICU admission. The risk and the burden of COVID-19 in people with mental disorders, in particular those with severe mental illness, can no longer be ignored but demands urgent targeted and persistent action. Twenty-two recommendations are proposed to facilitate this process.

"How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic": Correction

Reports an error in "How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic" by Carmen Moreno, Til Wykes, Silvana Galderisi, Merete Nordentoft, Nicolas Crossley, Nev Jones, Mary Cannon, Christoph U. Correll, Louise Byrne, Sarah Carr, Eric Y. H. Chen, Philip Gorwood, Sonia Johnson, Hilkka Karkkainen, John H. Krystal, Jimmy Lee, Jeffrey Lieberman, Carlos Lopez-Jaramillo, Miia Mannikko, Michael R. Phillips, Hiroyuki Uchida, Eduard Vieta, Antonio Vita and Celso Arango (The Lancet Psychiatry, 2020[Sep], Vol 7[9], 813-824). In the original article, the word Scandinavia has been corrected to Switzerland in relation to service users becoming more common in guiding mental health services. This correction has been made to the online version. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-64057-025). The unpredictability and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic;the associated lockdowns, physical distancing, and other containment strategies;and the resulting economic breakdown could increase the risk of mental health problems and exacerbate health inequalities. Preliminary findings suggest adverse mental health effects in previously healthy people and especially in people with pre-existing mental health disorders. Despite the heterogeneity of worldwide health systems, efforts have been made to adapt the delivery of mental health care to the demands of COVID-19. Mental health concerns have been addressed via the public mental health response and by adapting mental health services, mostly focusing on infection control, modifying access to diagnosis and treatment, ensuring continuity of care for mental health service users, and paying attention to new cases of mental ill health and populations at high risk of mental health problems. Sustainable adaptations of delivery systems for mental health care should be developed by experts, clinicians, and service users, and should be specifically designed to mitigate disparities in health-care provision. Thorough and continuous assessment of health and service-use outcomes in mental health clinical practice will be crucial for defining which practices should be further developed and which discontinued. For this Position Paper, an international group of clinicians, mental health experts, and users of mental health services has come together to reflect on the challenges for mental health that COVID-19 poses. The interconnectedness of the world made society vulnerable to this infection, but it also provides the infrastructure to address previous system failings by disseminating good practices that can result in sustained, efficient, and equitable delivery of mental health-care delivery. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity to improve mental health services. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)