Preface

The pandemic has created a global mental health crisis, fueling short- and long-term stress and undermining the mental health of millions. Estimates calculate an increase in both anxiety and depressive disorders of more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. Although data are mixed, younger age, female gender, and pre-existing health conditions have often been reported risk factors. At the same time, mental health services have been severely disrupted and the treatment gap for mental health conditions has widened. The European Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report "Health at a Glance: Europe 2022" confirmed that as the pandemic evolved, people's mental health fluctuated with the intensity of the wave of infection and with the severity of the confinement measures. Mental healthcare services have been disrupted at all levels, with hospitalizations declining and many in-person consultations canceled or postponed, particularly during the early stages of the virus's circulation. According to the OECD, unmet needs for mental health care increased both during and after the pandemic with 23% of adults reporting unmet mental health needs in spring 2022, up from 20% in the spring of 2021.

Furthermore, COVID-19 is associated with manifold diseases of the peripheral and central nervous systems that may be affected during and after the disease. Brain imaging should be considered in the diagnostic workup of those COVID-19 patients who present with neurological symptoms. Indeed, typical and atypical neuroimaging features have been observed, which in turn were associated with motor, cognitive, and behavioral phenotypic manifestations. Hence the definition "NeuroCovid," which alludes to the acute and chronic disorders that can arise in people who have developed the disease, such as dizziness, headache, loss of smell and taste, confusion, reduced concentration cognitive fog, states of anxiety and depression, hallucinations, psychiatric symptoms, and memory loss. In addition, peripheral nervous system involvement with polyneuropathies has been observed. Numerous studies have documented these neurological and neuropsychic complications, and the effects of COVID-19 on the nervous system are becoming better defined.

Equally relevant are the consequences resulting from the extraordinary nature of the present times. It is likely that a variety of habits, rhythms, and arrangements will have to be altered/modified in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and contain the infection (lockdowns and "physical distancing"). The pandemic has caused a series of other cascading effects that will probably be much more difficult to mitigate and that exposes us to complex consequences. The past years have brought many challenges, particularly for healthcare professionals, students, family members of COVID-19 patients, people with mental disorders, the frail, the elderly, and more generally those in disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions and workers whose livelihoods have been threatened. Indeed, the substantial financial impact of the pandemic may hamper progress towards economic growth as well as progress towards social inclusion and mental well-being.

With the aim of understanding and understanding the profound nature of the long-term problems for mental health derived from the pandemic, there are numerous studies underway all over the world that combine the work of multidisciplinary research groups.

This volume explores the complex relationship between COVID-19, mental health, acquired data, and possible interventions with a multidisciplinary approach encompassing physiological and cognitive mechanisms, medical treatment, psychosocial interventions, and self-management. The reader is taken through an excursus that moves from the virus-brain interactions to associated clinical conditions to possible treatments. Ample space is also given to social and geopolitical issues according to a biopsychosocial approach to physical and mental health.

The volume consists of twenty-one chapters divided into four thematic sections: "Coronavirus, Biochemical Signals and the Nervous System"; Mid- and Long-Term Sequelae of COVID-19: Clinical Conditions and Proposed Approaches"; Uncovering Pandora's Box: Challenges for Health Systems and Society"; and "Daily Life, Work and Well-Being: Impact, Resilience and Adaptation."

> **Sara Palermo** Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Neuroradiology Unit, Diagnostic and Technology Department, Fondazione Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
