Title:Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health: An Overview
Volume: 16
Issue: 3
Author(s): Minal M. Kshirsagar*, Arun S. Dodamani, Girija A. Dodamani, Vrushali R. Khobragade and Rahul N. Deokar
Affiliation:
- Department of Public Health Dentistry, Nair Hospital Dental College, Mumbai,India
Keywords:
Communicable disease, epidemics, mental health, psychological factors, COVID-19, health-care professionals.
Abstract:
Background: The COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) pandemic is a major threat to public health
worldwide; it has been identified as originating in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. It has spread
across the globe, causing an outbreak of acute infectious pneumonia. Such a global outbreak is associated
with adverse effects on mental health. Fear, stress and anxiety seem more definitely an outcome
of mass quarantine.
Methods: Keeping this pandemic situation in mind, existing literature on the COVID-19 crisis relevant
to mental health was redeemed via a literature search from the PubMed database. Collected
published articles were summarized according to their overall themes.
Results: Preliminary evidence suggests that symptoms of self-reported stress, anxiety and depression
have a common psychological impact due to the pandemic, and may be associated with disrupted
sleep. Regional, state and National-international borders have almost been shut down,
economies crashed, and billions of people quarantined or isolated at their own homes and quarantine
centers. In this situational frame of covid-19, patients, frontline health-care professionals anf
geriatric population with existing psychiatric conditions may be encountering further suffering.
Conclusion: COVID-19 will continue to affect mental health, which plays an important role in
battling the epidemic. With the scare of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rise, it is time that psychiatrists
should try to integrate the health-care services keeping mental health at prime.