The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a disaster that has impacted lives globally. The purpose of this paper is to understand the linkage between COVID-19 and its impact on mental health. To reach this aim, we reviewed the literature on COVID-19 and mental conditions. Based on the literature, we identified COVID-19 as an unexpected, large-scale event that disrupted communities and caused death, destruction and trauma which upended normal existence. For mental conditions, effects of the pandemic are likely to manifest in different ways: development of symptoms in previously healthy individuals, new episodes in those with predisposition to mental disorders and development of symptoms that do not meet diagnostic criteria. The level of mental health problems varies depending on the stage of the pandemic, country, population groups and types of conditions. This also applies to the level of suicide, although suicides do not seem to have increased during the pandemic. Yet, we identified a net of factors contributing to mental conditions, in general. These factors include demographic factors (e.g. female gender, younger and older age), social factors (e.g. economically disadvantaged), mental factors (e.g. pre-existing mental conditions) and relationship factors (e.g. stressful relationship, lack of relationships). Additionally, we identified COVID-19-specific factors such as threat to own life and threat to life of loved ones, containment measures and interruption of services and social life. We further explored potentially additional suicide-related risk factors. Regardless of differences, health care and psychosocial systems were in many countries not prepared to respond to a viral disaster. Viral disaster requires that responses not only include direct care but also responses to populations that may need support due to known determinants of mental health.

The aim of our study was to systematically review the literature on physical health and related consequences of internal and international parental migration on left-behind children (LBC). This review followed PRISMA guidelines. We searched the PubMed, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, and Cochrane databases and included studies reporting physical health-related outcomes of children affected by parental migration. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. We selected 34 publications from a total of 6061 search results. The study found that LBC suffer from poor physical health as compared with non-LBC. Physical health-related risk factors such as underweight, lower weight, stunted growth, unhealthy food preferences, lower physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, injuries, and incomplete vaccination tend to be more prevalent among LBC in China. Studies focussing on international migration argue that having migrant parents might be preventive for undernutrition. Overall, our study showed that children affected by internal or international migration tend to have similar physical health outcomes. Moreover, we identified a lack of evidence on international parental migration that may have influenced the overall impacts. Further studies addressing international migration would contribute to better understand the impacts of migration for LBC.

Public mental health (PMH) is a major challenge for public health research and practice. This article is organized in six parts. First, we will highlight the significance of PMH; second, we will define mental health and mental disorders; third, we identify and describe determinants of mental health and mental disorders on which we worked in the past 10 years since the establishment of the PMH section such as social determinants and violence. Fourth, we will describe the development of the EUPHA PMH section and provide details on vulnerable groups in the field of PMH, on violence as a main determinant and on suicide as an outcome which affects all countries in the European region. Fifth, we describe policy and practice implications of the development of PMH and highlight the European dimension of PMH. We will conclude this article by providing an outlook on potential further development of PMH as regards research and policy and practice. Finally, we hope that the EUPHA PMH section will contribute to public health in the next 25 years and we can contribute to improvement of PMH in Europe.

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Background Substance use is a problem among refugee populations. Instruments which assess substance use have been translated into different languages, but are not culturally sensitive. This research gap has to be filled to acquire information about substance use disorders in refugee populations, especially from Arabic countries, as a confession to using substances in those countries is culturally problematic. Methods Following databases were systematically searched: EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Sciences and PsychInfo resulting in 2659 hits. After removing 5 duplicates, 2650 studies were screened. After exclusion of irrelevant studies, 264 studies were assessed for eligibility and 128 studies were, so far included. Inclusion criteria were original studies, migrant or refugee participants, minimum age 18 years, usage of quantitative measures and substance use as the outcome. A data extraction sheet was developed with three reviewers working on it. Results 49 studies were found to use validated instruments. Most frequently used was the AUDIT (n = 17), followed by the WMH-CIDI (n = 11) and the CAGE questionnaire (n = 9). The majority of the studies (n = 55) used self-developed instrument with few items. To our knowledge, no study used a culturally sensitive adapted questionnaire. Conclusions More studies used self-developed items for assessing substance use than validated instruments. None of the studies used a culturally sensitive adapted instrument. This is a clear indication that such an instrument is needed for research and treatment. With a culturally sensitive instrument, the care for refugees and migrants could be improved and adjusted, possibly resulting in better public health outcomes. Main messages As refugee populations continue to grow, an adequate screening instrument for substance abuse/dependence for these individuals is missing. With the development of a culturally sensitive instrument, identification and treatment of refugees and migrants can be improved.

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