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

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.