Gonçalves Júnior J, Freitas JF, Cândido EL. COVID-19, mental health and Indigenous populations in Brazil: The epidemic beyond the pandemic. World J Psychiatry 2022; 12(5): 766-769 [PMID: 35663293 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i5.766]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jucier Gonçalves Júnior, MD, Academic Research, Internal Medicine - Division of Rheumathology, São Paulo University, Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 455, 3º andar - sala 3131 Cerqueira César, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil. juciergjunior@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. May 19, 2022; 12(5): 766-769 Published online May 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i5.766
COVID-19, mental health and Indigenous populations in Brazil: The epidemic beyond the pandemic
Jucier Gonçalves Júnior, Jucycler Ferreira Freitas, Estelita Lima Cândido
Jucier Gonçalves Júnior, Internal Medicine - Division of Rheumatology, São Paulo University, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil
Jucycler Ferreira Freitas, Estelita Lima Cândido, Post Graduate Program in Sustainable Regional Development, Federal University of Cariri, Juazeiro do Norte 63048-080, Ceara, Brazil
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally in the production of this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declare they do not have conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jucier Gonçalves Júnior, MD, Academic Research, Internal Medicine - Division of Rheumathology, São Paulo University, Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 455, 3º andar - sala 3131 Cerqueira César, São Paulo 01246-903, Brazil. juciergjunior@hotmail.com
Received: July 18, 2021 Peer-review started: July 18, 2021 First decision: October 4, 2021 Revised: October 5, 2021 Accepted: April 20, 2022 Article in press: April 20, 2022 Published online: May 19, 2022
Abstract
The aim of this paper was to report on factors contributing to the deterioration of the mental health of Indigenous populations (IP) in Brazil. Five factors seem to have a direct impact on the mental health of IP in Brazil: (1) The absence of public policies; (2) Intellectual production; (3) Psychiatric medical care for remote areas (e.g., telemedicine) aimed at promoting the mental health of Brazil’s IP, which causes a huge gap in the process of assistance and social, psychological, economic and cultural valorization of native peoples; (4) The dissemination of fake news, which exposed, above all, older IP to risk behaviors in the pandemic, such as refusal of vaccination; and (5) The violence carried out on IP lands due to economic interests with mining/agribusiness.
Core Tip: In Brazil, the mental health of the Indigenous population (healthy or with psychiatry disorders) suffers from several factors. Over the past 2 years, there has been growing violence against Indigenous people along with a considerable increase of fake news dissemination regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic currently afflicting them. These two factors, accentuated by the lack of public policies and scarce academic contribution in the area, make the mental health of the Indigenous population in Brazil an important public health problem.
