International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | April 2022 | Vol 9 | Issue 4 Page 1877 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Suman A et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2022 Apr;9(4):1877-1883 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article The acceptability of a self-guided psychological intervention for patients with COVID-19 in isolation and quarantine Aarzoo Suman 1 , Anish Shouan 2 , Shubh Mohan Singh 3 *, Krishan Kumar 3 INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people around the world. The cornerstone of management of pandemic is based on isolation and quarantine of affected individuals, the cornerstone of management of the pandemic is based on the isolation and quarantine of affected individuals. 1 Isolation is done to prevent the spread of infection by people with confirmed infection to unaffected individuals and quarantine aims to restrict the movement of people who have been exposed to infection to see if they develop the illness. The setting of isolation and quarantine can be institutional or at home. Different countries and regions have their own protocols depending on various factors. In the initial stages of the pandemic in India, quarantine and isolation were institutional in especially designated COVID hospitals. The initial stage of the pandemic was also characterized by misinformation and panic in the population regarding the nature and outcome of the illness. 2 Based on current evidence, the psychiatric symptoms associated with acute COVID-19 are likely to be similar to other coronavirus infections. It is expected that there would be a high prevalence of acute psychological symptoms in patients with COVID-19 (who do not require intensive care) and severe mental illness ABSTRACT Background: A significant number of patients not requiring intensive care would experience psychological symptoms and distress. This may necessitate mental health care services which may be not be feasible given the number of patients involved and paucity of mental health care workers. An innovative solution for such a scenario may be in the form of a self-guided psychological intervention. The aim of the study was to test the acceptability of a brief self-guided psychological intervention for patients in quarantine and isolation with COVID-19. Methods: The authors developed a brief, self-guided psychological intervention handout targeted towards reducing psychological distress and enhancing the coping of patients in quarantine and isolation due to COVID-19. This was developed concurrently in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. This was administered to 60 patients. Assessments were done at baseline and at two weeks. Results: Assessments were completed in 51 patients (21 isolated and 30 quarantined). A majority of the patients in both groups found the intervention to be appropriate in form and content, relevant to the situation, had a positive emotional impact on them, enhanced their understanding of the situation and was perceived as being useful overall. The intervention was found to be highly acceptable. Conclusions: The study demonstrates the acceptability and feasibility of using this intervention in patients in isolation and quarantine due to COVID-19. The intervention lends itself to ease of use and can be scaled up at little cost. Keywords: COVID-19, Self-guided psychological intervention, Psychological distress, Coping, Isolation, Quarantine 1 Department of Psychiatry, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Rajpura, Punjab, India 2 Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 3 Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, Punjab, India Received: 23 February 2022 Accepted: 15 March 2022 *Correspondence: Dr. Shubh Mohan Singh, E-mail: shubhmohan@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20220868