A recent study completed by Oxford University has indicated 20 per cent of people who contacted COVID-19 developed a psychiatric disorder within 90 days of infection.
Lifeline Australia CEO John Brogden told Sky News the study findings were not completely surprising because undergoing a quarantine period takes away two fundamental human needs; “certainty” and “human contact”.
“When you’re given a diagnosis of COVID that could in fact lead to greater physical illness, or death frankly, and in the UK of course the experience is a much higher death rate than it is here in Australia,” he said.
“With those factors in play there is a high likelihood that people become anxious and that leads to a clinical anxiety, that they become depressed.
“It’s always been the case that shocks to people’s physical health d bring on the risk of mental illness as well.”
Mr Brogden said he considered the“physical isolation” felt by those in quarantine to be “forced loneliness.”
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