Effects of Quarantine during Epidemics on Mental Health and Associated Management Strategies: A Narrative Review

Recently, the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has caused stress and anxiety in the world. Therefore, countries have decided to use the quarantine to control the spread of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to review the evidence regarding the side effects of quarantine on mental health and discuss recent strategies to reduce the negative consequences of this preventive measure.  

The present narrative review was conducted on the related articles published within 2003-2020 by searching the SID, Google Scholar, Medline, ScienceDirect, PubMed databases.

Although quarantine is essential to prevent a widespread outbreak, it may have many negative consequences, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, anger, fear, anxiety, and depression.

Quarantine should be performed based on the scientific and modern methods. To reduce the side effects of quarantine, some issues, such as the duration of quarantine, mental health service, financial support, adequate information, and avoidance of stigmatization should be taken into account. Officials should explain the clear rationale for quarantine and provide information about protocols during the prequarantine period. Given the alteration of the routine lifestyle during the quarantine, it is required to design different protocols for hospital staff, the elderly, parents, and children to reduce stress and anxiety.