Global health disparities in vulnerable populations of psychiatric patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Table 1 Review of primary literature on coronavirus disease 2019 global health disparities

Ref.	Vulnerable population	Type of study	Country or region	Key mental health findings
El Hayek et al[5], 2020	Mature adults	Thirteen country case studies by thirteen early career psychiatrists	Arab Countries in the Middle East North Africa Region	General lack of mental health services for geriatric population during the COVID-19 pandemic
Proto and Quintana-Domeque[28], 2021	Ethnic minorities	Longitudinal survey	United Kingdom	Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Indian individuals experienced significant increase in mental health distress than general population
Czeisler et al[29], 2020	Ethnic minorities	Cross sectional survey	United States	Significant higher suicide rates in ethnic minorities having considered suicide in the past 30 d before completing survey during COVID-19 pandemic
Lassale et al[31], 2020	Ethnic minorities	Cohort study	United Kingdom	Greater psychological distress experienced by Asians after hospitalization for COVID-19 than general population
Newby et al[39], 2020	Ethnic minorities	Longitudinal survey	Australia	Significant higher anxiety and distress in individuals with self-reported history of mental health diagnosis than those without a mental health diagnosis
Lee and Waters[45], 2020	Ethnic minorities	Longitudinal survey	United States	Over 40% of Asian Americans reported increase in anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic
Gómez-Ramiro et al[54], 2020	Children with autism and developmental disorders	Retrospective study	Spain	Significant increase in acute psychiatric hospitalizations during COVID-19 lockdown
Nadler et al[65], 2021	Children with autism and developmental disorders	Case study	United States	Case study of child with autism and behavioral health concerns examines limited psychosocial support and availability during the COVID-19 pandemic
Bishop[69], 2020	Sexual gender minorities	Qualitative study	Global	Interviews with 59 SGM from 38 countries; majority showed increased isolation and anxiety
Suen et al[73], 2020	Sexual gender minorities	Community based survey	Hong Kong (China)	SGM are particularly vulnerable to poor mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
Peterson et al[74], 2020	Sexual gender minorities	Cross sectional, convenience sample survey	United States	Greater psychological distress in SGM. A large number of bisexual individuals in the sample may have magnified the differences between SGM and sexual-majority groups
Durankuş and Aksu[77], 2020	Pregnant women	Cross sectional survey	Turkey	Higher depression scores on Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale in pregnant women than control group during COVID-19 pandemic
Liu et al[80], 2021	Pregnant women	Cross sectional survey	United States	Study on pregnant women and women who recently gave birth. Women with self-reported psychiatric diagnoses were 1.6-to-3.7 more likely to score at clinically significant levels of depression, generalized anxiety, and PTSD
Corbett et al[81], 2020	Pregnant women	Preliminary cross-sectional survey	Ireland	Pregnant women surveyed described heightened anxiety over COVID-19 affecting older adults, their children and their unborn baby
Saccone et al[82], 2020	Pregnant women	Cross sectional survey	Italy	More than half of pregnant respondents rated psychological impact of COVID-19 as severe
Wang et al[83], 2020	Female gender	Cross sectional survey	China	Increased psychological impact on female gender and having a poor self-rated health status
Liu et al[85], 2020	Female gender	Cross sectional survey	China	Female respondents had higher negative cognitions on posttraumatic stress symptoms than males
Berthelot et al[87], 2020	Pregnant women	Longitudinal cohort survey	Canada	Pregnant women assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic reported more prenatal stress and psychiatric symptoms than pre-pandemic cohort
Lebel et al[88], 2020	Pregnant women	Cross sectional survey	Canada	Higher symptoms of depression and anxiety in pregnant women were associated with greater concern about COVID-19 threatening the life of the mother and baby
Taquet et al[113], 2021	Psychiatric vs non psychiatric population	Retrospective medical record network study	United States	Psychiatric diagnosis might be considered an independent risk factor for COVID-19 illness.
Logue et al[114], 2021	Psychiatric vs non psychiatric population	Longitudinal prospective cohort survey	United States	2.3% of respondents reported “brain fog” at 6 mo post COVID-19 infection

COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; PTSD: Posttraumatic stress disorder; SGM: Sexual and gender minorities.