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Review
. 2021 Apr 16:12:565190.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.565190. eCollection 2021.

Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak Quarantine, Isolation, and Lockdown Policies on Mental Health and Suicide

Balasankar Ganesan  1 , Adel Al-Jumaily  2   3 , Kenneth N K Fong  4 , Palak Prasad  5 , Surendra Kumar Meena  6 , Raymond Kai-Yu Tong  1
Affiliations
Review

Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak Quarantine, Isolation, and Lockdown Policies on Mental Health and Suicide

Balasankar Ganesan et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has made a huge impact on people's physical and mental health, and it remains a cause of death for many all over the world. To prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, different types of public health measures (social isolation, quarantine, lockdowns, and curfews) have been imposed by governments. However, mental health experts warn that the prolonged lockdown, quarantine, or isolation will create a "second pandemic" with severe mental health issues and suicides. The quarantined or isolated people may suffer from various issues such as physical inactivity, mental health, economic and social problems. As with the SARS outbreak in 2003, many suicide cases have been reported in connection with this current COVID-19 pandemic lockdown due to various factors such as social stigma, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, fear of COVID infection, loneliness, and other mental health issues. This paper provides an overview of risk factors that can cause suicide and outlines possible solutions to prevent suicide in this current COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; isolation; lockdown; mental health; quarantine; social distancing; suicide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of COVID-19 impact on mental health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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