Mental health implications of COVID-19 and lockdown among general and special populations: An Indian perspective

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 (Wang et al., 2021). When the whole world was combating unprecedented circumstances, India witnessed a laudable nationwide coordinated effort during the first wave to flatten the COVID-19 growth curve. However, unfortunately, while the world is still recuperating from the brunt of the pandemic, India is struck by the lethal second wave. With thousands of lives lost since March 2021, the actual extent of the damage in India wreaked by the second wave remains unquantifiable.

The disastrous impacts of COVID-19 are not just limited to physical health and well-being but also bring with itself a significant setback on the mental health front, precipitated by socio-economic determinants (Roy et al., 2020). Last year in 2020, governments of numerous countries had to enforce temporary lockdowns for pandemic containment. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic went from an immediate health emergency to a global economic and social crisis, particularly in developing nations, contributing to severe mental health deterioration amongst the vulnerable population. The primary mental health issues that have been reported were stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, denial, anger, and fear. In addition, the grief and depression resulting from the loss of a loved one, anxiety and panic due to uncertain future, unemployment, and financial turmoil, and added psychological effects of lockdown and quarantine have led individuals to resort to devastating measures such as suicide (Carvalho et al., 2020; Roy et al., 2020).