[Mental Health and COVID-19 in children and adolescents: psychopathologycal and Public Health approach]

The pandemic produced by COVID-19 has a significant impact on society and has also affected childhood and adolescence, which, in general, has been the most silenced group. This article addresses the contents that affect the mental health of children and adolescents in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is located in the “fourth wave of care” in category F54 of the ICD-10 (“Behavioral and psychological factors in disorders or diseases classified elsewhere”). The presentation mechanism is: reactive-adaptive to the pandemic; triggering factor, before a previous affective-emotional instability; decompensation of a pre-existing process. The clinical features have had their initial phase, fundamentally, in confinement: somatoform disorders, behavioral disorders, emotional symptoms, reactivation of child abuse and dysfunctional grief reactions. The most prevalent symptoms are of the anxious or anxious-depressive type. The response to chronic stress, including that of low profile and intensity but maintained over time, has significant repercussions for childhood and adolescence. Few percentage that present prominent mental disorders, but we must recognize that when projected to the whole the child-adolescent population, there could be a significant number that could be subsidiary of a more specific help. The return to schooling is going to represent another important moment, the repercussions of confinement being of capital importance, especially in terms of addictive behaviors with information and communication technologies. Intervention by professionals trained in childhood and adolescent mental health is a priority to avoid unwanted clinical evolutions or iatrogenesis.