To the editor
Quarantine played an important role in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak
and can also cause mental disorders. Dr Brooks and her colleagues conducted a rapid
review (Brooks et al., 2020) about the psychological impact of quarantine in 2020.
However, their review did not include any articles related to the ongoing COVID-19
outbreak.
We conducted a rapid review about psychological impact of quarantine during the COVID-19
outbreak. We systematically searched the following databases from their inception
until 30 March 2020: Medline, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), WANFANG
Data, CBM (SinoMed), and Google Scholar with the combination terms relating to COVID-19
(eg, “COVID-19″ OR “SARS-CoV-2″ OR “2019 novel coronavirus” OR “2019-nCoV” OR “novel
coronavirus”) AND quarantine (eg, “quarantine” and “patient isolation”) AND psychological
outcomes (eg, “psych” and “stigma”). The inclusion criteria are original studies published
in peer-reviewed journals in Chinese or English. The literature focuses on the psychological
state of patients and physicians in quarantine. We used Endnote X9 for literature
screening. Two trained researchers (XL, QW) screened first by title and abstract,
then the third researcher (YC) checked the results. Full text screening was done by
one researcher (XL) and checked by another (ML).
A total of 389 records were identified. After reading the full texts, eight studies
were included (Cheng et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2020; Wang et al.,
2020; Li et al., 2020a; Li et al., 2020b; Zhong et al., 2020; Ju et al., 2020), all
from China, of which seven were cross-sectional studies (Cheng et al., 2020; Dong et al.,
2020; Ma et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020a; Li, X. et al., 2020; Zhong et al.,
2020) and one a case report (Ju et al., 2020) (Supplementary material). The studies
involved a total of 687 participants, of whom 649 were quarantined (Table 1
).
Table. 1
Study characteristics.
Table 1
Study
Country
Design
Participants
Age of participants (in years; range or mean ± SD)
Quarantine period
Evaluation methods
Cheng et al., 2020
China
Cross-sectional
60 patients with COVID-19 and 60 patients suspected with COVID-19 (all quarantined)
NR
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure
Self-developed questionnaire via online system (https://www.wjx.cn/)
Dong et al., 2020
China
Cross-sectional
40 suspected COVID-19 patients being quarantined, and 38 residents not quarantined
21–50
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure
GAD-7 and PHQ-9 to assess psychological disorders
Ju et al., 2020
China
Case report
2 residents suspected with COVID-19
46 and 78
11 days and 12 days
Interview
Ma et al., 2020
China
Cross-sectional
13 quarantined in hospital and 110 at home
Group 1: 35.38 ± 5.17;Group 2: 38.24 ± 11.01
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure
SF-36 health survey, PSQI to evaluate the sleep quality and DASS-21 to evaluate general
mental health
Wang et al., 2020
China
Cross-sectional
396 children
12.8 ± 2.6
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure; home quarantine
DSRS to assess depressive symptoms
Li et al., 2020a
China
Cross-sectional
396 children and adolescents aged 8–18 years
12.8 ± 2.6
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure; home quarantine
SCARED to assess anxiety symptoms
Li et al., 2020b
China
Cross-sectional
76 quarantined in hospital
36 ± 15
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure; hospital quarantine
HAMA to assess anxiety symptoms
Zhong et al., 2020
China
Cross-sectional
20 quarantined in hospital
21–46
Length unclear; COVID-19 exposure; hospital quarantine
Self-developed questionnaire
NR: Not Report; GAD-7: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7; PHQ-9: Patient Health Questionnaire;
SF-36: Short-Form Health Survey-36 items; PSQI: Pittsburgh sleep quality index; DASS-21:
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21; DSRS: Depression Self-rating Scale for Children;
SCARED: Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders; HAMA: Hamilton Anxiety
Scale; SD: standard deviation.
Two studies (Wang et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020a) evaluated the symptoms of depression
and anxiety in children (8–18 years) after quarantine. One study (Dong et al., 2020)
compared the psychological outcomes for people quarantined with those not quarantined.
One (Cheng et al., 2020) compared the psychological outcomes for people quarantined
in hospital and at home. One (Ma et al., 2020) compared the quality of sleep and state
of mental health between patients quarantined in hospital and at home. One (Li, X.
et al., 2020) explored the risk factors of anxiety and depression in patients with
suspected COVID-19. One (Zhong et al., 2020) conducted a psychological health survey
for front-line medical staffs. The case report (Ju et al., 2020) analyzed two patients
with COVID-19 who developed the acute stress disorder (ASD) during the quarantine.
Based on these studies, a great amount of psychologic symptoms or problems developed
during the quarantine period, including anxiety (228/649, 35.1%), depression (110/649,
16.9%), loneliness (37/649, 5.7%) and despair (6/649, 0.9%). One study (Dong et al.,
2020) reported that people quarantined had suicidal tendencies or ideas than those
not quarantined.
We also examined the factors influencing the development of psychologic symptoms.
Two studies (Wang et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020b) showed that the mental health status
of COVID-19 patients and people under medical observation differed across gender,
age, marital status, education, occupational status, monthly income per capita, and
place of residence. However, according to another study (Ma et al., 2020), no significant
associations between age, gender, marital status, and education level with psychological
problems in patients quarantined in hospital and at home. For children, age, gender,
place of residence, and awareness of the epidemic were the main factors affecting
mental health (Wang et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020a).
Three studies (Cheng et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2020) explored the
stressors during quarantine. One study (Cheng et al., 2020) indicated that not being
able to reunite with family members, not being able to complete work, and having only
limited possibility for activities in the isolation room were the main sources of
psychological stress. Another article (Dong et al., 2020) reported that concerns about
infection, disorder of life, isolation of the surrounding environment, and stigma
were the main stressors during quarantine. A cross-sectional study (Ma et al., 2020)
showed that worrying about own and families' illness, disruptions in normal life,
and too small isolation space were the main sources of psychological health problems.
In contrast to the review by Brooke et al., however, problems in insufficient supplies
or insufficient information were rarely mentioned. Included studies did not report
the presence of stressors affecting the mental health of COVID-19 patients after the
end of the quarantine.
In China, two main types of quarantine are being used during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Those who have no symptoms but had contact with people with confirmed cases are usually
required to stay at home for about 14 days. Suspected patients and patients discharged
after treatment need to stay in collective quarantine in a hospital or other facility.
For people quarantined at home, the social media such as WeChat and Weibo have become
the main sources of information. But the information from such sources is mixed including
some fake news (Shimizu, K., 2020), which may cause public panic. In hospitals medical
assistance is the first priority, but the mental health of people quarantined is an
equally important matter and should not be ignored. Considering the huge number of
people with mental illness in China (Huang et al., 2019), psychological interventions
are urgently needed. However, the lack of psychiatrists has become a major challenge
for effective psychological care in China (Que et al., 2019; Shi, S., 2019; Wu, J.,
and Pan, J., 2019).
In conclusion, we systematically analyzed eight studies and found that the main psychological
problems of patients with COVID-19 were anxiety, depression and loneliness. The main
source of the problems seems to be the small isolation space and the surrounding environment,
but the stress may also be related to concerns about delayed work or infecting family
members. Professional psychological care and the access to reliable information are
essential for minimizing the mental health problems during quarantine.
Author contributions
Enmei Liu and Yaolong Chen contributed to study concept and design. Xufei Luo, Meng
Lv and Yunlan Liu contributed to data collection and data analyses. Xufei Luo and
Janne Estill drafted the manuscript. Qi Wang revised the manuscript. Yaolong Chen
supervised this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
Support by special funding for prevention and control of emergency of COVID-19 from
Key Laboratory of Evidence Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province
(No. GSEBMKT-2020YJ01); 2020 Key R & D project of
10.13039/501100009620
Gansu Province
.
Declaration of Competing Interest
We declare no competing interests.