Special Attention to Psychiatric Centers in COVID-19 Pandemic

In Iran, the hard work percentage for psychiatry staff is 100% that equals hard work percentage in critical care units such as intensive care unit (ICU) and cardiac care unit (CCU). This percentage of hard work is due to the special conditions of patients with mental health disorders and specific work of the mental care team. Psychiatric centers need special attention in the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with mental health disorders have an ongoing challenge of hygiene observance that is now doubled with the prevalence of COVID-19. This challenge is significant in a variety of outpatients, inpatients, acute, chronic, psychotic, and neurotic patients with mental disorders. The process, form, and content of thought, mood, affect, perception, judgment, insight, and attention are changed in their mental status examination. Psychiatrists, caregivers, patients with mental disorders, and their families are at high risk for infection. They can also be carriers of the asymptomatic disease. Unfortunately, some cases of COVID-19 have been observed since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Iran. Coronavirus may be transmitted by an asymptomatic carrier. The incubation period for this disease is long and has been reported in the range of 0 to 24 days (1).