Effective recommendations for reducing anxiety and depression caused by COVID-19 outbreak in medical staff.

The pandemy of new coronavirus (COVID-19) and its spread to other geographical areas has become a major concern for health care providers around the world in recent months after the outbreak in Wuhan, China (Zandifar & Badrfam, 2020).

The number of patients around the world is increasing, and with the reporting of new cases in countries, there is a widespread fear and anxiety from this disease with its various unknown dimensions. Although the mortality rate of COVID-19 is lower than previous coronavirus such as Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the morbidity of the disease have increased the fear of the disease. (Banerjee, 2020).

However, COVID-19 has similarities with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV but the evidence showed that the speed of this newly identified virus spreads is greater than the previous two and it is more contagious in human-to-human transmission (Li et al., 2020; World Health Organization (WHO), 2020).

The reported common symptoms include “fever, cough, shortness of breath and respiratory problems and in more severe cases, pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, kidney failure”, and even death are not unexpected (Huang et al., 2020).

There is currently no specific treatment for this disease. The main treatment includes symptomatic treatment and it includes the prevention of the complications of the disease and the special care of infected people, which is very effective.

The incidence of confirmed cases has increased rapidly within a short period of time, with confirmed cases exceeding 80,000 and deaths reaching 2912 by March 1, 2020 (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Naeim, 2020), plus secondary infections, all of which have placed a huge burden and pressure on local prevention and treatment. At present, more than 30,000 medics from nationwide medical teams have supported Wuhan (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020), which has eased the pressure on local rescue work for treating critically ill patients with NCP. However, some medical workers have been seriously infected in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei Province, with over 3000 medical staff having been confirmed of infection (Thompson, 2020), which has greatly intensified the anxiety and depression caused by corona inevitably affect the treatment staff, and the psychological effects of this anxiety on the treatment staff reduce their ability.

This anxiety and depression in the treatment staff may be seen as intermittent fear and even panic attacks, or they may be accompanied by physical symptoms such as shortness of breath and palpitations.

In this case, if you do not pay attention to this issue and the psychologist and psychiatrist do not intervene, the person may progress to depression and even feel helpless and helpless in treating patients. Sometimes he/she becomes overly sensitive to his physical symptoms and misinterprets his physical symptoms. This anxiety is also passed on to family and other friends, and the person may experience tension with family and colleagues. in this case, this should be done professionally and using gentle methods. Employees should be instructed to refer to authoritative sources of information for statistics and information, because in stressful situations, the likelihood of people receiving rumors is higher. According to him, talking about your anxiety is helpful to your friends, and you need to spend hours with your family away from cyberspace and avoid stressful situations.

Physical activity and exercise can help control anxiety. This is not the first crisis to affect the treated staff, and in all crises, people can use the adaptive skills they have acquired in the past.

If the psychological symptoms are severe and the employee's performance is reduced, you need to see a psychologist and psychiatrist for professional help.

Strategies to Reduce Anxiety and Depression:

At work, use simple methods to reduce your anxiety and depression; these include stretching and stretching exercises, outdoor walking, and deep breathing exercises.

Strengthen the culture of support and teamwork in the workplace; ask your collegous about their concerns and talk with them about their concerns.

Most people overreact to other people's small mistakes when they are under a lot of anxiety and depression; give each other positive feedback and encourage people's efforts and seriousness.

Limit using virtual networks. Repeated surveys of virtual networks can increase our anxiety and depression and limit the amount of time we need to rest to regain strength and energy.

Be careful to maintain the principles of professional treatment in dealing with patients and their problems in critical situations; observance of professionalism is crucial part of the healing process for patients

In crises, many things are out of our control; focus only on the things that are in our control and not think too much about the parts of the crisis that we have no control over.

Have a regular schedule for contacting and talking with family and friends about good news and events.

Adhere Healthy eating recommendations and drink plenty of fluids.

Consult a sychologist and psychiatrist at times when you feel helpless.

Adequate sleep and healthy diet are essential to human health; take time for a short rest in a place with less noise.

Talk to colleagues about the topic, psychological review can help reduce anxiety and depression.

Follow recommendations and guidelines about transmitting the disease Help reduce your anxiety and anxiety and depression by following safety.

Use a happiness therapy approach at work

Take care of the mental health of our other colleagues; if you see any of the signs of anxiety and depression in your colleagues, support them.

Boost active listening skills and listen to each other.

Avoid seen images and movies of unfortunate and annoying scenes through virtual networks.

Refrain from expressing and disseminating false and unreliable news and information based on speculation about the number of patients and deaths in society, especially in virtual networks.

Encourage others to follow the recommendations for disease prevention and adher to them yourself. Public observance is essential for controlling the COVID-19 pandemy.

Author disclosure

All authors have approved the final article.

Funding source

None.

Contributors

All authors contributed equally.

Declaration of competing interest

None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to disclose.