Júnior Jucier Gonçalves, de Sales Jair Paulino, da Silva Flaviane Cristine Troglio, Filho João de Deus Quirino, Cavalcanti Rita de Cassia Pires Bezerra, Landim José Marcondes Macedo, Lima Nádia Nara Rolim, Neto Francisco Facundo de Matos, Cardoso Fábio, Neto Modesto Leite Rolim
Department of Internal Medicine, Santa casa de Misericórdia de Fortaleza, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
Quixada Catholic University Center, Av. Placido Castelo, Quixada, Ceara, Brazil.
Psychiatry Res. 2021 Feb;296:113669. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113669. Epub 2020 Dec 24.
This study aimed to analyze the possible impacts on the prison population's mental health in the context of the new COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative study was carried out following a lexical and content analysis using the software IRaMuTeQ, version 0.7 alpha 2, in the speech of the short communication and headlines from newspapers. Three groups emerged from the analysis: "spatial conditions for infection" (39.2% of the text segments); "disease outbreaks in prisons" (30,4%) and "public responsibility" (30,4%). Precarious conditions of prisons, high rate of infections and psychiatric illnesses, and lack of government assistance are issues that should be given special attention in order to formulate health promotion and prevention policies focusing on mental health in prison population.