COVID-19 and Anxiety: A Review of Psychological Impacts of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Abstract

Context:The advent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused confusion, changed people's living conditions, including commuting restrictions, fear of disease transmission, and closure of schools and businesses, and brought about devastating psychological impacts, like anxiety. However, most studies only have focused on clinical data. Evidence Acquisition: In this short review, the psychological effects of COVID-19 and its association with anxiety were examined. Accordingly, the electronic databases, including PubMed, Medline, Elsevier, and Science Direct were reviewed for relevant studies that have conducted since 2007. Results: The current study was carried out to indicate that COVID-19 has negative psychological problems other than mortality. A review of the studies performed in other parts of the world showed that COVID-19 has caused several psychological impacts, including increased anxiety. Conclusions: By an increase in the prevalence rate of COVID-19 and its resulted restrictions, the level of anxiety increases, as well; therefore, raising public awareness of the disease and providing positive psychological programs in the media aimed at controlling stress can reduce anxiety in society.

Perceived Job Insecurity and Depressive Symptoms among Italian Dentists: The Moderating Role of Fear of COVID-19

“…Indeed, the COVID-19 outbreak has represented a social situation in which the fear of being infected has dramatically increased levels of negative mental health outcomes [40,42]. Indeed, the fear of COVID-19 has even exacerbated preexisting stress due to, among other factors, the loss of income and the economic crisis [43,44]. Moreover, previous studies [43,44] seem to have already highlighted potential associations between job insecurity, fear of COVID-19, and negative mental health outcomes, but none of these has explored such associations in detail.…”

“…Indeed, the fear of COVID-19 has even exacerbated preexisting stress due to, among other factors, the loss of income and the economic crisis [43,44]. Moreover, previous studies [43,44] seem to have already highlighted potential associations between job insecurity, fear of COVID-19, and negative mental health outcomes, but none of these has explored such associations in detail. Considering the severe restrictions under which dentists have been obliged to work, it seems plausible to assert that being infected by COVID-19 could result in a temporary closing of their activity, thus increasing a real economic loss and exacerbating the levels of job insecurity.…”

Exercise Behavior and Mood during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Lessons for the Future

“…Based on the cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis [ 62 ], exercise might result in the adaptation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis [ 49 , 63 , 64 ], which in turn lead to anxiolytic effects. This suggests that frequent exercisers might benefit from anxiolytic effects of exercise, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 65 , 66 , 67 ].…”

Living in fear: The relationship between fear of COVID-19, distress, health, and marital satisfaction among Israeli women

“…The COVID-19 pandemic is a source of intense stress and fear for the entire global population (Ahorsu et al, 2020;Garfin et al, 2020). People have reported experiencing fear of infection, death, loss of a family member, and fear of contact with people who may be infected (Fardin, 2020). As such, "with high levels of fear, individuals may not think clearly and rationally when reacting to COVID-19" (Ahorsu et al, 2020, p. 2).…”