COVID-19’s Negative Mental Health Impact Goes Well Beyond Standard At-Risk Populations: Action Needs To Be Taken to Combat Long-term Nationwide Emotional Disruption

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a suboptimal response to this threatening global disaster, including the response to the psychological impact. Both the economic hardship and the continuous media coverage of alarming news have exacerbated this effect which also includes increased domestic violence. Aim To address this important aspect of disaster management and provide recommendations on how to mitigate these effects. Methods This is a narrative review written by three experts in community medicine, disaster medicine and psychiatry reflecting the interdisciplinary approach in managing disasters. Selected important papers, personal published papers, PUBMED articles and media news related to the disaster management of the psychological effects of COVID-19 pandemic were collected over the last year, critically appraised and used in writing this manuscript. Results The COVID-19 pandemic causes major emotional distress. Lack of effective treatments and availability of the cur...