Introduction:

Social isolation and quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic are effective measures with the aim of safeguarding lifes. However, these measures bring an important cost for mental health. Monitoring psychological reactions derivative of movement´s obligatory restrictions during COVID-19 pandemics must represent a priority for all health systems.

Objective:

To analyze available evidence on the negative impact in mental health of quarantine and social isolation.

Methods:

It was carried out a bibliographic and documents review in digital data sources on the topic. Fort the search in English and Spanish the following words were used: quarantine, social isolation, psychological impact, psychological reaction. The search was made in Scopus, EBSCO Health, PubMed (search engine), SciELO and PsycINFO focusing in original articles and systematic reviews. For data collection, it was made an instructional sheet and for its use it was applied direct content analysis.

Conclusions:

Actions like to keep the population informed, to facilitate access to feedback channels, to guarantee basic supplies and to facilitate strategies for coping with stress allow to minimize the negative impacts of a quarantine period. Difficulties associated to COVID-19 will not end 28 days after the last diagnosed case. When that moment comes it will be time for a short brake, but there will be still a lot to do.

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