Editorial: Mental illness, culture, and society: Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic

Editorial on the Research Topic Mental illness, culture, and society: Dealing with the COVIDpandemic Since 2020, the spread of the coronavirus and its subsequent clinical manifestation, the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, have represented a historic event of global significance. The pandemic has affected the quality of life and mental health status of both the general population and patients with mental health problems (1-3). In the beginning, the health and social consequences were mainly linked to the direct lifethreatening risk posed by an unknown and highly fatal respiratory disease, for which no treatment or vaccine were available (4). Therefore, disease prevention, through physical distancing of the general population and isolation of cases, was considered the most effective measure to minimize the spread of the virus (5).