Corona and Human Being: Mental Health -Today and Tomorrow

The novel corona virus disease that emerged at the end of 2019 began threatening the health and lives of millions of people after a few weeks. Highly contagious with the possibility of causing severe respiratory disease, it has quickly impacted governments and public health systems. These have responded by declaring a public health emergency of national and international concern, as well as by adopting extraordinary measures to prevent the contagion and limit the outbreak. Millions of lives have been significantly altered, and a global, multi-level, and demanding stress-coping-adjustment process is ongoing. The COVID-19 disease has now achieved pandemic status. The World Health Organization has issued guidelines for managing the problem from both biomedical and psychological points of view. While preventive and medical action is the most important at this stage, emergency psychological crisis interventions for people affected by COVID-19 are also critical. This includes direct interventions for patients, and indirect for relatives, caregivers, and health care professionals. After the first experiences in China, clinical institutions and universities internationally have opened online platforms to provide psychological counseling services for affected people. Nevertheless, some research has underlined that the mental health of COVID-19 patients (including confirmed patients, patients with suspected infection, quarantined family members, and health care workers) has been poorly considered and handled. Moreover, in order to develop psychological interventions for all or specific (e.g., more vulnerable) groups, important issues to address include the adverse psychological impacts and psychopathological symptoms in the general population during the pandemic.