Long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on five mental and psychological disorders: in terms of the number of disease visits, drug consumption, and scale scores

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 caused mild to severe infections in humans. The long-term epidemic environment harms people’s mental health. To explore the impact of the epidemic on people’s mental and psychological conditions, we surveyed in Wenzhou. METHODS: We collected the data of people who visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University for five types of mental and psychological diseases from January 2018 to December 2021. Then, taking December 2019 as the cut-off point, the 48-month data were divided into the pre-epidemic group and the dur-epidemic group. Based on the above data, statistical analysis was done. RESULTS: From 2018 to 2021, the number of initial diagnoses, the number of disease visits, and drug consumption for these five types of mental and psychological diseases were all on the rise. Compared with the number of disease visits for all disorders in both psychiatry and neurology departments, it was found that the growth rate of these five diseases was higher than the growth rate of all disorders. We found that the number of disease visits, drug consumption, and scale scores after the COVID-19 outbreak were significantly different from those before the outbreak (P < 0.05). And the number of disease visits positively correlated with drug consumption (P < 0.0001, r = 0.9503), which verified the stability of the data. CONCLUSION: The epidemic environment has had a long-term and negative impact on people’s mental and psychological conditions. Therefore, whether or not the epidemic is receding, we still need to be concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on mental and psychological health. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-023-05166-0.