2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to investigate the impact of unrealistic optimism on the risk of contamination at home con nement and its association with certain social variables. Methods: This survey study was conducted to describe the level of unrealistic optimism and its association with some social variables. The participants (n = 558, 60.6% females and 39.4 males) subjectively evaluated the risk of their coronavirus infection in the period 1-15 May 2020, for this purpose a questionnaire was adopted and administered to a sample of 558 citizens. Results: the results showed that 69.2% of the participants con rmed their respect always, and 38.7% con rmed that they rarely wear the mask, while 24% of the sample con rmed that they only sometimes wear the mask when they leave the house, including 50.5% of the sample con rmed that people infected with the coronavirus suffer from social stigmatization. It is found that 54.8% of the respondents had an average level of unrealistic optimism, where the mean of participants was (36, 17 ± 5, 97). The study also revealed that there is an association between the levels of unrealistic optimism and respect the home con nement (P = 0.001); whereas, the results showed that there is no association between the levels of unrealistic optimism and wearing the mask (P = 0.183). The study discovered there is signi cantly a negative association (B =-, 119, P = 0.005) between unrealistic optimism and the age of Algerian citizens during the home con nement of coronavirus. Otherwise, while the results did not show any statistically signi cant differences in unrealistic optimism between groups of gender among Algerian citizens during the home con nement of coronavirus (P = 0, 0835). Conclusions: In effect, unrealistic optimism is linked to avoiding risky behaviors that threaten human life as it is the case with the coronavirus. Therefore, it is important to reduce the levels of unrealistic optimism of individuals with beliefs and objective information to avoid dangerous behavior during and after the con nement period.

The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China

“…It has been indicated that the increasing number of patients and suspected cases, as well as the increasing number of provinces and countries affected by the outbreak, have elicited public worry about being infected in this outbreak, which has increased anxiety (Bao et al, 2020). Furthermore, the significant shortage of masks and disinfectants, the overwhelming and sensational news headlines, and erroneous news reports have also added to anxiety and fear (Ayittey et al, 2020).…”

“…The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) has spread very rapidly all over China and several other countries, causing an outbreak of acute infectious pneumonia (Bao et al, 2020). According to the official website of the National Health Commission of China, there were 49824 confirmed cases (including 9915 severe cases) and 3434 suspected cases of COVID-19 in China as of 23 February 2020 (National Health Council, 2020).…”

Rethinking online mental health services in China during the COVID-19 epidemic

“…The COVID-19 epidemic in China has ignited another epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression (Bao et al, 2020). Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government has taken proactive measures to contain not only the spread of the novel coronavirus but also that of psychological distress in the public.…”

Are we facing a crashing wave of neuropsychiatric sequelae of COVID-19? Neuropsychiatric symptoms and potential immunologic mechanisms

“…This pandemic is a potential source of direct and vicarious traumatization for everyone (Z. , which is only further emphasized by unsettling case reports of suicide deaths related to fears of contracting or spreading COVID-19 (Goyal et al, 2020;Montemurro, 2020). Therefore, several groups have rightfully called for the development and implementation of mental health screening and intervention programs for both the public and for healthcare workers (Bao et al, 2020;Xiang et al, 2020).…”