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Stress and Brain 2021, 1(1): 1-10 https://doi.org/10.26599/SAB.2020.9060007
Review Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 23 December 2020

Prevention for post-traumatic stress disorder after the COVID-19 epidemic: Lessons from the SARS epidemic

Show Author's Information Bin Wang1,2,  Zhigang Miao1,  Bo Wan1( ),  Xingshun Xu1,2,3( )
Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Keywords:
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Cite this article:
Wang B, Miao Z, Wan B, et al. Prevention for post-traumatic stress disorder after the COVID-19 epidemic: Lessons from the SARS epidemic. Stress and Brain, 2021, 1(1): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.26599/SAB.2020.9060007
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Abstract Full text About this article

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as the sixth public health emergency of international concern, and on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared that COVID-19 is a pandemic. To date, patients with COVID-19 are present in most countries in the world. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The COVID-19 virus and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus are approximately about 79% homologous, and their transmission modes are similar, but the transmission speed and range of COVID-19 virus far exceed those of the 2003 SARS virus, causing people to experience panic, anxiety, and depression. After the SARS epidemic, many survivors and medical workers had severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which seriously affected their quality of life. Here, we reviewed the situations of PTSD after the SARS epidemic. The lessons and experiences of PTSD caused by SARS may help deal with the more severe occurrence of PTSD during and after the COVID-19 epidemic.


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About this article

Prevention for post-traumatic stress disorder after the COVID-19 epidemic: Lessons from the SARS epidemic

Show Author's information Bin Wang1,2, Zhigang Miao1, Bo Wan1( ), Xingshun Xu1,2,3( )
Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China

Abstract

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as the sixth public health emergency of international concern, and on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared that COVID-19 is a pandemic. To date, patients with COVID-19 are present in most countries in the world. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The COVID-19 virus and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus are approximately about 79% homologous, and their transmission modes are similar, but the transmission speed and range of COVID-19 virus far exceed those of the 2003 SARS virus, causing people to experience panic, anxiety, and depression. After the SARS epidemic, many survivors and medical workers had severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which seriously affected their quality of life. Here, we reviewed the situations of PTSD after the SARS epidemic. The lessons and experiences of PTSD caused by SARS may help deal with the more severe occurrence of PTSD during and after the COVID-19 epidemic.

Keywords: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

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Received: 05 April 2020
Revised: 03 May 2020
Accepted: 12 May 2020
Published: 23 December 2020
Issue date: September 2021

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© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grants from National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFE0103700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81120108011 and 81771454), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2019ZD32), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China.

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