Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Jun 03, 2021)
Date Submitted: Jul 25, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Recognizing the impact of COVID-19 on depression and its mitigation
ABSTRACT
Abstract Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly evolving threat to all of humanity and overall global stability. It is evident from history that events like pandemics or large-scale disasters lead to an increased risk of adverse mental health effects. The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 is presenting unprecedented challenges to all walks of life and is also likely to spark a widespread negative impact on mental health all around the world.
Objective:
The primary purpose of this article is to review the effect of COVID- 19 pandemic on depression and discussion of possible methods to its recognition and mitigation. Discussion: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a widespread panic into individuals from all parts of society. In many respects, it has had a negative domino effect on mental health. The pervasive stay-at-home orders targeted to contain the spread of the infection have led to isolation, which has further reduced outlet avenues for individuals from the difficult aspects of their lives and has planted the seeds for psychological issues. In some cases, preventative measures even have led to the surfacing of pre-existing mental health challenges. The economic hardship and the limitations of healthcare access during the pandemic have further escalated the situation. Cognizance, detection, treatment, and prevention methodologies are needed to combat the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on depression in the population. More research into this field would allow mental health care providers to formulate new guidelines and recommendations to limit the impact of this pandemic on behavioral health.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.