Primary care physician's approach for mental health impact of COVID-19

Jitendra Rohilla; Pinki Tak; Shubham Jhanwar; Shazia Hasan

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_513_20

Primary care physician's approach for mental health impact of COVID-19

J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Jul 30;9(7):3189-3194. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_513_20. eCollection 2020 Jul.

Authors

Jitendra Rohilla¹, Pinki Tak², Shubham Jhanwar¹, Shazia Hasan³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Science, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India.
² Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Science, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India.
³ Department of Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India.

Abstract

As the world struggles to control coronavirus infection with the exhausting capacity of health care systems globally, the role of primary care physician and family physician becomes more important as the first point of contact with the community. Limited availability of mental health services in India requires general practitioners to deal with psychological disorders arising due to infection outbreak and its restrictive control strategies. This article discusses what and how primary physicians can manage the psychological burden of a pandemic, and therefore, reducing the reliance on mental health specialist.

Keywords: COVID-19; mental health service; pandemic; primary care physician; psychiatric disorders.

Publication types

Review