**Introduction.** Public health strategies for protection against COVID-19 infection involve social isolation, quarantine, social distancing, and community containment. In all cases, the quantity and quality of social interactions decrease. Since social interactions are fundamental to psychic functioning and well-being, social isolation has high potential to produce psychic suffering and, in the end, mental disorders. In addition, excessive exposure to sources of information and misinformation about the pandemic can cause anxiety to individuals, worsening the situation of psychic suffering. To avoid major impacts on the mental health of populations, it is fundamental to understand how isolation, the perception of loneliness, and other intra- and inter-psychic factors produce symptoms of psychic suffering and anxiety. **Justification.** The possible negative impact of public health strategies to contain COVID-19 on mental health is an aggravating factor that should be considered when choosing complementary policies. An immediate priority for research in this area is to collect high quality data on the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the general population, vulnerable groups, and patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, research that should, above all, give voice to the participants in order to raise, in anemic way, the acts of meaning that are present in the way they think about physical isolation. Among these immediate priority objectives, the identification of causal mechanisms associated with the effects on mental health, including loneliness, sense of imprisonment, coping strategies, and repeated consumption of media-derived information, is critical to the creation of complementary mental health policies that lessen the impact of social isolation while maintaining the effectiveness of community confinement. Thus, understanding the intra- and inter-psychic mechanisms that provide appropriate or maladaptive responses from a mental health perspective can positively impact the creation of policies and interventions that mitigate the negative effects of community confinement. **Hypotheses.** *Hypothesis 1:* In individuals in isolation, the loneliness produced activates coping strategies for withdrawal and escape, the intensity of which correlates directly with symptoms of anxiety and common mental disorders; *Hypothesis 2:* In individuals in isolation, low use of supportive coping strategies increases the effect of loneliness on symptoms of anxiety and common mental disorders; *Hypothesis 3:* In individuals in isolation, External Entrapment moderates the effect of loneliness, so that the greater the feeling of external imprisonment, the greater the effect of loneliness on symptoms of anxiety and common mental disorders; *Hypothesis 4:* In individuals in isolation or not, intense use of positive reevaluation coping strategies decrease (moderate) the effects of information consumption on symptoms of anxiety and common mental disorders; *Hypothesis 5:* The semantic field of physical isolation has a complex and multidimensional nature. **General objective.** To investigate the impact of physical isolation and its consequences (especially exposure to information and loneliness), the mediating effect of intra-psychic factors (different coping strategies, loneliness, and imprisonment) on anxiety and symptoms of common mental disorders, as well as to identify the repertoire of emic meaning/ meaning attributed to this nature of isolation. **Specific objectives:** 1. to analyze the mediating effect of coping strategies on the direct effect of loneliness on symptoms of common mental disorders and anxiety symptoms in individuals in isolation (leaving home less than once a week) and out of isolation (leaving home more than 3 times a week); 2. to analyze the effect of the coping strategies on the direct effect of loneliness on symptoms of common mental disorders and anxiety symptoms in individuals in isolation (leaving home less than once a week). Analyze the moderating effect of External Entrapment on the direct effect of loneliness on symptoms of common mental disorders and anxiety symptoms in individuals in isolation (leaving home less than once a week) and out of isolation (leaving home more than 3 times a week); 3. Analyze the mediating effect of coping strategies on the direct effect of information consumption on symptoms of common mental disorders and anxiety symptoms in individuals in isolation (leaving home less than once a week) and out of isolation (leaving home more than 3 times a week); 4. Identify the repertoire of emic meanings attributed to social isolation in the pandemic. **Methods.** *Study design:* This is an observational, prospective, cohort study. *Population:* Brazilians (or naturalized) over 18 years. *Data collection:* Data will be collected from online forms in two steps: quantitative research (ex-post-fact study) and qualitative study. *Sample Size:* For the first step, at least 562 respondents will be required. For the second step, we will start with 50 respondents, increasing the sample to saturation. By the cut-off criterion, 100 respondents are expected in the second step. *Instruments:* For the first stage, the following instruments will be used: socio-economic questionnaire; questionnaire of social isolation practices; Self-Report Questionnaire-20; Scale of Anxiety for Outpatients; Brazilian Scale of Solitude UCLA; Scale of Entrapment; Inventory of Coping Strategies of Folkman and Lazarus; and inventory of information sources on OVID-19. For the second stage, a cognitive task of free writing will be used, with the following question: "What comes to your mind when you think about physical isolation?" *Data analysis:* The data from the first step will be analyzed using Baron & Kenny's causal step method. The data of the second step will be analyzed through thematic analysis of content. *Inclusion and exclusion criteria:* The following inclusion criteria apply to research participants: 1. being Brazilian or naturalized; 2. being over 18 years of age. Post-facto exclusion criteria include the following: 1. random answers on one or more scales of the questionnaire. Random answers will be detected form by form, using infrequency scales with error balancing threshold. 2. Missing values in more than 25% of the items in one or more scales of the questionnaire. Missing values are defined with no response to one of the items in each scale. *Risks and benefits:* When dealing with a survey that aims to analyze questions related to social isolation and information consumption in the face of a pandemic scenario, the questions may cause discomfort and/or possibly some degree of anxiety to the participant. This risk will be minimized by offering the participant the possibility of not answering any questions, or of giving up the research at any time. Participants may not benefit directly and individually from this research; however, indirectly, participants will benefit from the exercise of self focus, which may corroborate the instancing of self-conscious states which, in a reflective manner, would strengthen their capacity to alleviate the psychological damage experienced when in a situation of physical isolation. We hope that participation in the study can increase knowledge about mental health and the effects of the pandemic, and support policies and actions to prevent and treat psychological problems arising from social isolation and distance. These issues are spelled out in the Informed Consent Term. *Open Science Practices:* The study is pre-registered in the Open Science Framework.