Shubham Goswami
Background:-The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a global public health and economic crisis, especially in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with highly significant levels of psychological distress that, in many cases, would meet the threshold for clinical relevance. While psychological support is being provided to patients and healthcare workers, the general public specifically the young adolescent student's mental health requires significant attention as well. Such widespread outbreaks are associated with adverse mental health consequences. Keeping this in mind, existing literature on the COVID-19 outbreak pertinent to mental health was studied and published articles were classified according to their overall themes and summarized. Preliminary evidence suggests that symptoms of anxiety (18.92% to 71%), depression (9% to 78.7%), symptoms of PTSD (2.7% to 16.3%) and stress (14.46% to 88%) are common psychological conditions associated to the COVID-19 pandemic, and may be associated with disturbed sleep. A number of individual and structural variables moderate this risk. This review highlighted the possible causes of mental health issues among the students during the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of COVID-19 on psychological outcomes of the students and its associated risk factors. Student mental health in higher education has been an increasing concern. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has brought this vulnerable population into renewed focus. Methods A search was conducted on PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science with various relevant terms. A manual search on Google Scholar was performed to identify additional relevant studies. The articles were selected on predetermined eligibility criteria. Results Relatively high rates of symptoms of anxiety (18.92% to 71%), depression (9% to 78.7%), post-traumatic stress disorder (2.7% to 16.3%) and stress (14.46% to 88%) are reported among the students during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, Italy, US, Turkey, Nepal, Bangladesh, Poland, Slovenia, Czechia, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Israel, Columbia, UAE, Taiwan, Egypt, Czech republic, Netherlands, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Jordan. Risk factors associated with distress measures include female gender, presence of chronic/psychiatric illnesses and frequent exposure to social media/news concerning COVID-19. Conclusions During the COVID-19 struggle, providing sound mental health services for individuals is very important to maintain the mental health. Mitigating the hazardous effects of COVID-19 on mental health is an international public health priority. Due to the COVID pandemic situation and onerous measures such as lockdown the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on higher education. The findings of our study highlight the urgent requirement to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the mental health of college students. There is a need for more representative research from other affected countries, particularly in vulnerable populations.
