COVID-19 and its Implications on Mental Health: A Review
Author(s): Udit Gupta, Komal Muneshwar* and Ashok Mehendale
Abstract
Background: On 11th of March in the year 2020, the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic by the world health organization. COVID-19 started as a zoo originally infection originating allegedly from the wet markets of the Chinese city of Wuhan. Although there is a large void of controversial opinions on how the virus originated, ranging from exotic mammals as harbouring reservoirs to lab leak theories pointing the finger at government agencies, there is a high degree of possibility that any of them could be true and this needs further investigation. What we are sure of however, is that there must be a collective effort from health care professionals and lay persons alike to mitigate the damages caused by the viral pandemic. There are widely reported cases of patients suffering from severe stress and PTSD like symptoms induced by hospitalization with COVID-19 or being taken ill by it severely. There is an urgent need to identify and resolve the primary causes and explain the pathogenesis for the same. As clinicians, the onus is on us to ensure that these patients are not suffering beyond their systemic complications and that they are in the best possible care system to deal with their mental anguish.