Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Processing time: 303 Days and 10.7 Hours
Core Tip

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.