Psychological influence of Coronovirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the general public, medical workers and patients with mental disorders and its countermeasures

Wang, Sanwang; Wen, Xin; Liu, Bin; Dong, Yingying; Cui, Ming hu

Coronovirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first broke out in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in 2019, and now it spreads in more than 100 countries around the world. On January 30th, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency (PHEIC) of international concern. It was classified as a pandemic by (WHO) of the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. With the increase in the number of cases reported by various countries every day, the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted more and more attention around the world. At the same time, this public health emergency has caused a variety of psychological problems, such as panic disorder, anxiety and depression. In addition, the Wuhan Mental Health Center's analysis of 2144 calls from the psychological hotline from February 4 to February 20, 2020 showed that general public accounted for 70%, medical workers accounted for 2.2%, patients with mental disorders accounted for 19.5%, and other personnel accounted for 8.3% (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kmff1vnaLsT2d9xQkK5pwg). Therefore, while controlling the pandemic, the government should also pay attention to the mental health of the general public, medical workers and patients with mental disorders. Community mental health service system, online mental health service, telemedicine and other measures for patients with mental disorders may play a vital role during the pandemic.