Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr;17(2):63-64.
doi: 10.36131/CN20200205.

Lockdown and Isolation: Psychological Aspects of Covid-19 Pandemic in the General Population

Federico Mucci  1   2 , Nicola Mucci  3 , Francesca Diolaiuti  4
Affiliations

Lockdown and Isolation: Psychological Aspects of Covid-19 Pandemic in the General Population

Federico Mucci et al. Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2020 Apr.

Abstract

As of March 2020, the respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been declared a "pandemic" by the WHO. In an effort to stem the spread of the virus, governments around the world have ordered more or less restrictive isolation measures. If lockdown and social isolation have proven to be quite effective in terms of physical containment, mental health appears undermined by the onset of feelings such as uncertainty, fear, and despair. Likely, in the near future, mental health professionals will be called to face a "parallel pandemic" of acute stress disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional disturbance, sleep disorders, depressive syndromes and eventually suicides.

Keywords: COVID-19; PTSD; depression; lockdown; pandemic; psychiatry; psychology; suicide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None.

References

    1. Asmundson, G. J. G., & Taylor, S. (2020). Coronaphobia: Fear and the 2019-nCoV outbreak. J Anxiety Disord, 70, 102196. 10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102196 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana. (2020). Decreto del presidente del consiglio dei ministri 9 marzo 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2020/03/09/20A01558/sg]. [Accessed March 31st, 2020]
    1. Hawryluck, L., Gold, W. L., Robinson, S., Pogorski, S., Galea, S., & Styra, R. (2004). SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis, 10(7), 1206-1212. 10.3201/eid1007.030703 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johns Hopkins University. (2020). Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for System Science and Engineering (CSSE). Retrieved from: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. [Accessed March 31st, 2020]

LinkOut - more resources