Mental health of medical staff, patients and the elderly people in countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

Mental health of medical staff, patients and the elderly people in countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
Yousef Alaee Mollabashi,^1,* Younes Anzabi,²
1. Department of Biology, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2. Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, East Azarbaijan, Iran
Introduction: Coronaviridae belongs to the family of RNA- sense positive viruses, enveloped (lipid coatings) and spherical viruses, which in recent years have seen the outbreak of viruses of this family, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which causes pneumonia and advanced respiratory failure, and over the course of 2012 we saw the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which like SARS, involved the host respiratory tract. In December 2019, an outbreak of an unknown pathogen intensified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, so that from December 18 to 29, five patients were hospitalized, one of whom died. This trend gradually escalated until researchers were able to isolate the causative agent of the disease, identifying it and finding that a virus from the coronavirus family is the cause of these diseases and deaths, and on February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) He called the virus COVID-19. Phylogenetic studies on this pathogenic virus have shown that it is a beta-coronavirus and is closely related to bat coronaviruses, which attracted the attention of the general public and experts to bats. On March 11 this year, the WHO declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. Despite the global prevalence of this deadly virus, no definitive drug or treatment has been found for it. The COVID-19 pandemic has profound effects on health, the economy, people's lifestyles, mental health, and so on in countries affected by the virus worldwide. In recent years, studies aimed at investigating the impact of the prevalence of SARS on the mental health of people with the disease showed a negative impact on people with the virus. Among the psychological effects that COVID-19 has had on the world and in studies that have been proven in various countries such as China, Japan, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, Africa, etc., we can stress and anxiety, Concerns and... Pointed out. The purpose of this review study is to review the studies conducted focusing on the impact of the global prevalence of COVID-19 on the mental health of different individuals in the community affected by this disease according to their occupation, age, etc.
Methods: At first, we used comprehensive keywords such as COVID-19, Mental Health, on Science Direct, Google Scholar, and more. In the next step, we used the words and, or between the keywords to extract articles that are completely related to the subject under study and writing this review article entered the further review process.
Results: A study in China examined the level of anxiety, stress and other psychological problems of medical staff. In this study, the statistical population surveyed was 1257 people, including 493 physicians and 764 nurses in various hospitals, of which 34 were reported. They have been at work since the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 and have been in contact with those infected with the virus, and the results showed that 50.4% had symptoms of depression, 71.5% had distress, 34% had sleep disturbance, and finally, 44.6% had anxiety symptoms. A noteworthy point in this study is the recording of more severe symptoms in the medical staff of Wuhan hospitals. The results of a study published in the Arab and African countries known as the MENA region include Algeria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and several other countries. With the global outbreak of COVID-19 due to the lack of adequate support for the elderly, this particular group is under pressure in terms of mental health and needs the participation and support of relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations. In a study conducted in China among 205 people in 3 groups, and we refer to 2 groups of them in this section. The first group consisted of patients with COVID-19 (n = 57) and the second group consisted of quarantine subjects (n = 50) who assessed depression and anxiety among these individuals. 36.8% of Covid-19 patients, ie 21 people, did not show any signs of depression, but on the other hand, in quarantined people, this figure had reached 70%, ie 35 people. The incidence of severe depressive symptoms was 19.3% in patients with Covid-19 and only 4% in quarantined patients. In 54.4% of patients, no symptoms of anxiety were observed, and in 72% of quarantined patients, no symptoms of severe anxiety were observed. Finally, 32% of patients showed severe symptoms of anxiety and only 2% of quarantined patients showed severe symptoms of anxiety. Researchers in this study have linked the degree of sensitivity of people to mental health injuries to gender, social support, and so on.
Conclusion: Carrying out similar studies in Iran in order to accurately assess and inform the mental health of compatriots, and in this regard, conducting counseling activities through the national media, telephone calls with people at risk of mental injury in order to encourage them, efforts to Increasing the awareness of the country's population on the easy control of this disease with the measures recommended by the Ministry of Health and reducing the mental injuries that follow can help control or reduce mental injuries and increase people's mental health.
Keywords: Medical staff, Patients, Elderly people, Pandemic, COVID-19