European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Lockdown is an emergency situation which has confined people to their homes, states and country. Individuals felt insecure and worried about their financial matters and their mental health was affected at some point of time during the corona virus pandemic lockdown.
Aim: The study aimed to assess the effect of lockdown on mental health between the general population and covid-19 frontline health care workers.
Material and Methods: The survey was conducted from July to October 2020 using DSM -5 Self-Rated level 1 cross-cutting symptom measure -Adult scale, circulated through social media platform (Google forms). In this study, 180 participants were enrolled. Hindi version of the measure was used to assess the psychological impact on the participants and a score of 0 was considered as NO and was taken as a Negative response and scores 1 to 4, were considered as YES and were taken as a positive responses.
Result: A total of 180 responses were obtained during the survey, amongst them 36.67% were male and 63.33%were female. Frontline healthcare workers were 51.67% and among the Non-health care workers, unemployed were 10%, Student were 17.78%, and the remaining working were 56.67%. As per DSM 5 Crosscutting symptoms scores, the most common reported psychological symptoms were Anxiety  81.11%, Depression  52.78%, Sleep problems  29.44%, and Substance use 25%,. The comparison between both the groups was not statistically significant (p>0.001). However, non-healthcare workers experienced more psychological symptoms.
conclusion: The covid-19 lockdown was associated with poor mental health across individuals .the lockdown was observed  to be a stressful situation that could have precipitated psychological symptoms like anxiety, stress, depression, and sleep disturbance in the individuals.