There are facts that are decisive for some generations. Throughout history, humanity has faced wars and pestilences whose consequences young people bring in body and soul. One of the most remembered – perhaps because of the landmark it meant for the 20th century – is always the Second World War and Nazism. Millions of Jews fled to different countries around the world in an attempt to mitigate the devastation that the persecution of Hitler caused in their lives. This story comes back to us recurrently in movies and series.
The coronavirus pandemic we’ve faced since the beginning of 2020 will have the same power. She was able to create a universe of experience and memories that will accompany generations and generations. Since then, there have been many sensations: fear, dread, sadness, hope, expectation. In almost 24 months, we’ve gone through all the feelings. From recklessness about the future, locked at home, to euphoria with the creation of the vaccine that pointed to a light at the end of the tunnel.
Children and young people will leave this experience deeply scarred. Just as children and young people were also marked at the end of the Spanish Flu or the aforementioned Second War. Months at home, without physical exercise or hobbies, without going to school, without personal interaction with teachers, with restricted contact to the screens, without playing with friends or seeing grandparents. You can’t get out of such a severe restriction without lifelong memories – but also without any impact on mental health.
Research published in the scientific journal of the American Medical Association from 29 other studies that heard 80,000 children from different countries in Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and the Middle East pointed to a true pandemic of depression among children and young people. The study concluded that the prevalence of mental disorders has doubled among young people, if we consider the period before the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, one in four children and adolescents shows symptoms of depression and one in five shows signs of anxiety.
From Brazil, the participating institution was the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). The Brazilian survey interviewed 289 children, aged six to 12 years, from all over the country, in 2020. The prevalence of anxiety disorder symptoms was found at 19.4%, following the worldwide percentage. A year later, in March 2021, Unesp submitted the same questionnaire again and the positive response to signs of anxiety rose to 25%.
With vaccination evolved, moving quickly towards the booster dose, more than re-establishing the lives of young people and children is needed. School classes have already resumed and leisure, cultural and sports activities can now be attended. With responsibility and security, it is essential that children create a new range of happy experiences to be remembered in the future.
Fabio Barbirato is a psychiatrist from the ABP/CFM and is responsible for the Child Psychiatry Sector of the Santa Casa do Rio Psychiatry Service. As a professor, he teaches in the postgraduate courses in Medicine and Psychology at PUC-Rio. He is the author of the books “A mente do your son” and “The boy who never smiled & other stories”. He was one of the presenters of the painting “Eu amo Quem Somos”, about bullying, on “Fantástico” (TV Globo).
