Uncorrected Proof Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci. In Press(In Press):e103865. Published online 2020 May 2. doi: 10.5812/ijpbs.103865. Letter Stress Reduction Model of COVID-19 Pandemic Mohsen Khosravi 1, * 1 Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Baharan Psychiatric Hospital, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran * Corresponding author: Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Baharan Psychiatric Hospital, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Postal Code: 9813913777, Zahedan, Iran. Tel: +98-5433522636, Fax: +98-5433518352, Email: dr_khosravi2016@yahoo.com Received 2020 April 17; Accepted 2020 April 21. Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemics, Stress Dear Editor, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), referred to as 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV2, has attracted global attention after appearing in Wuhan, China, in the late December 2019, followed by being introduced as a pandemic by the WHO (1). In recent months, measures taken to identify the destructive effects of this epidemic on public men- tal health have failed despite concentrations on epidemi- ology, clinical features, transmission patterns, and man- agement of COVID-19 (2). Previous studies have suggested that pandemics impose a broad spectrum of psychologi- cal impacts. At the individual level, these adverse effects can cause new psychiatric symptoms, intensify the pre- existing mental illnesses, and induce distress in caregivers of infected patients. Accordingly, in such a condition, so- ciety members may undergo some negative experiences, such as fear and anxiety about falling sick or dying and helplessness, which can potentially cause mental break- down (3). Likewise, it is believed that the COVID-19 pan- demic can significantly affect public mental health and well-being in addition to physical health (4). From a psy- chopathological viewpoint, the current pandemic can be assumed as a relatively new form of stressor or trauma for several reasons. First, unlike natural disasters, the COVID- 19 pandemic is not a temporary emergency limited to a spe- cific region. In other words, this threat can exist in every region and be transmitted from person to person (2). Sec- ond, social isolation programs such as quarantine, physi- cal distancing, and self-isolation may cause different psy- chological problems due to limiting normal adaptive cop- ing strategies, namely social interactions, exercises, and leisure time. On the other hand, isolated infected patients cannot see their close ones, which intensifies their suffer- ing (5). Third, some specific characteristics in COVID-19, such as uncertain incubation period of the virus, possibly asymptomatic transmission, a rapidly increasing number of confirmed cases and deaths, and lack of specific treat- ment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus, have esca- lated the fear and anxiety among the general population (1, 5). The final negative effect is the stigma of disease im- posed on suspected cases, confirmed patients, and their families (even after being recovered) by society (1, 6). There- fore, the psychosocial consequences of the COVID-19 pan- demic seem to be more severe for several groups of peo- ple and may put them in need of immediate follow-ups. These groups include (1) confirmed patients, (2) suspected cases, (3) susceptible persons, particularly those who are vulnerable to biopsychosocial stressors, (4) people who are directly or indirectly in contact with the virus, (5) patients who refuse to seek care, and (6) health professionals and healthcare workers (4). According to the recent experiences, on January 26th, 2020, the National Health Commission of China released a statement about reducing the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic on public mental health. The statement clearly emphasizes the importance of psychological crisis inter- ventions as part of the public health response to the cur- rent pandemic (5). However, one of the drawbacks of this statement is disregarding the mobilization and coordina- tion of different groups and the undeniable role of the gov- ernment and society members in providing public mental health and well-being. Accordingly, the proposed model of this paper clas- sifies stress-reduction programs into three subcate- gories, including individual-level, government-level, and professional-level implementation strategies, and ad- dresses the essential roles of these groups in the reduction of long-term psychological consequences of COVID-19 pan- Copyright © 2020, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.