Hospital-based Psychological Interventions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article maps scholarship in psychology and psychoanalysis on clinical interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a narrative literature review derived from a master’s research project and grounded in the author’s clinical experience with patients in a COVID-19 referral intensive care unit. Data were collected from April to September 2022 using the descriptors “psychology,” “psychoanalysis,” “hospital,” “interventions,” and “COVID-19 pandemic,” with no language filter. Publications span 2020–2022. The corpus comprises 38 articles, two guideline manuals, one advisory booklet, three books, and a live-stream by a hospital psychologist and contemporary psychoanalyst. Results indicate that, in the international literature, early Chinese publications served as key references for conceptualizing psychological interventions in the pandemic context. In Brazil, hospital psychology accounts for most publications, while psychoanalytic work in hospital settings remains comparatively limited. Across both international and national outputs, a common thread is the strategic use of technological devices (tablets, smartphones) to enable and sustain clinical practice.