Definitions and Psychological Impacts of Quarantine and Strategies to Reduce It: A Review Paper

Context: 

Worldwide outbreak of coronavirus has been declared by the World Health Organization as a global emergency. Quarantine, as one of the first important health measures to control and spread epidemic diseases, is the focus of health authorities and policymakers in most societies. This study was designed to obtain the psychological impact of quarantine and strategies to reduce it.

 Evidence Acquisition:

This is a “narrative review” study done through advanced search with the keywords Quarantine, Home isolation, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Mental Health, Psychological effect in the Scopus, Pumped, Clinical Key, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Web of Science databases from 2019-2020. The articles were included in the study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Systematic searching and screening of the titles resulted in 68 initial titles that decreased to 46 after reviewing the abstracts, and 19 articles were included in the final review.

Quarantine can lead to psychosocial problems from feeling lonely to depression and anxiety disorders. Certain counseling, as well as educational and supportive interventions, can make this situation tolerable.

For acceptance and adherence to quarantine conditions, clear and transparent information about the disease and its prevalence and meeting the needs of people such as psychological, informational, and financial needs in each country are essential to reduce fear and anxiety.