Psychological Impact of the Corona Virus Lockdown on the General Population: A Cross Sectional Online Survey

Purpose: To assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 infection lockdown on the general population. Methods: From 28th April to 4th May 2020, an online survey was conducted using snowballing sampling and invitation through online social media to participate. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were col-lected. Psychological impact was assessed with the help of self designed questionnaire adapted from DSM-5 Self-Rated Level 1 CCSM-Adult scale. Results: In total, there were 568 responses from different cities / vil-lages of the country. Out of these eight responses were excluded from the study because of lack of consent and final sample size analyzed was 560 (358 male, 202 female). Half of the participants were under 35 years of age, 63.9% were male, 49% have done post graduation and 59.1% were living in nuclear family. Analysis of response revealed presence of a high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms ranging from 5.5 % to 49.3% in the participants. Anxiety symptoms (49.3%), manic symptoms (37.3%) depressive symptoms (36.1%), anger issues (28.6%), somatic symptoms (26.3%) and sleep problems (24.5%) were the most common domains of psychiatric symptomatology reported by participants. Conclusion: Our study provides early evidence of a significant psychological impact of COVID-19 infection and lockdown on common people living in the community indicating a need for quick, comprehensive and longitudinal assessment of mental health needs of the population for early diagnosis and prevention of psychiatric disorders. © 2021 KBCSM, Zagreb.