Dados do Trabalho

Título

The increasing number of headaches in the context of infoxication and in the post-pandemic world

Resumo

Introduction: At the current Digital Age, access to information is constant, whether through large communication devices or through smartphones. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, this problem has gotten worse, with not only the disclosure of necessary data, but also the spread of misinformation, causing emotional and mental overload. Given this, an increase in anxious and depressive symptoms was noted. In addition, there were neurological symptoms, among which the most common is headache, with emphasis on primary ones. Such headaches occur without the usual clinical or laboratory tests showing any etiology, as in, for example, migraine. In these cases, brain neurochemical disorders occur, involving neurotransmitter imbalance. In this bias, genetic and environmental factors act in these disorders. The present study will address the environmental factor contribution. Objective: To associate the impacts of disproportionate information overload with the increase in the number of headaches in the post-pandemic context. Methods: This is a literary review, in which research published in both English and Portuguese between the years 2019-2022 on Scielo, Google Scholar and PubMed were used. The following descriptors were used: “Headache”, “Information” and “Covid-19”, with 5 articles selected. Results: Based on these articles it can be seen that, with the increase in the use of electronic devices and with the excess of information available, incidence of headaches in the population in all age groups has been increasing. Within the spectrum of studying the cognitive function of the elderly, even before the covid-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression were already shown to be associated with headache. However, this situation was intensified during the intoxication resulted from Covid-19 and headaches in elderly people who have access to information proved to be an important health marker. In teenagers, excessive use of computers was considered a risk factor for the development of headache, especially in females. Furthermore, there was a high prevalence of primary headache among them, migraine being the most prevalent type, followed by tension-type headache. Conclusion: In this context, contributing factors are the excessive use of electronic devices and the information overload to which people were exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, causing an immense emotional and mental damage and, finally, reflecting negatively on neurological health.

Palavras Chave

“Headache”, “Information” and “Covid-19”,