Humanistic and Holistic Strategies for Combating Mental Health Sequelae in the Elderly During the Post-COVID Era


Author: Kalyan Maity1,2, Parth Lal3, Saras Jyoti4, Parul Bali5, Uttam Kumar Thakur6, Gurmeet Singh7, Vijaya Majumdar1, Sanjib Patra8, Jaideep Arya4, Akshay Anand2,9,10,11

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Division of Yoga and Life Sciences, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

<sup>2</sup> Neuroscience Research Lab, Department of Neurology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>3</sup> Advanced Pediatric Centre, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>4</sup> Haryana Yog Aayog, AYUSH Department, Panchkula, Haryana, India.

<sup>5</sup> Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, Punjab, India.

<sup>6</sup> Department of General Surgery, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>7</sup> Department of Physical Education, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>8</sup> Department of Yoga, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India.

<sup>9</sup> CCRYN Collaborative Centre for Mind Body Interventions Through Yoga, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>10</sup> Centre of Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.

<sup>11</sup> *Tenth author of this article is an editor of the journal. To avoid a conflict of interest, other editors independently conducted the anonymized peer-review process and made decision for this article.
Conference/Journal: Ann Neurosci
Date published: 2024 Jan 18
Other:
  Pages: 09727531231208292   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1177/09727531231208292.   ,  Word Count: 275  
    Background:

The elderly population is rapidly growing worldwide. By the year 2050, the elderly population will increase up to 2.1 billion. Among them, most of the elderly will be from low- to middle-income countries. India and China are the most populated countries in the world, and also they fall in the category of low- to middle-income countries. The elderly population in these two countries is also growing rapidly and creating an economic burden of geriatric care. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the healthcare system. A higher mortality rate was documented among the elderly due to COVID-19; hence, it was a challenge for them to deal with a high load of the elderly population during the pandemic. These challenges never sublimate even during the post-COVID era. Mental health issues, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, are major drawbacks of COVID-19 among the elderly due to excessive fear of getting reinfection of COVID-19 and fear of social withdrawal. These factors are affecting healthy aging among the elderly. Even though WHO has taken few initiatives for healthy aging, proper interventional strategies are required to prevent mental illness and improve mental health among the elderly during the post-COVID era.



Summary:

In this review, we have proposed a few mind-body strategies like Yoga, Exercise, Tai-Chi, and Qigong to improve mental health and holistic patient-centric implementation of those practices in the elderly during the post-COVID era.



Key message:

Mind-body interventions can be used in a holistic patient-centric manner to prevent infectious diseases, and post-infection consequences. Further, it enhances immunomodulation along with mental health in the elderly.



Keywords: Post-COVID-19; elderly; holistic strategies; humanistic strategies; mental health.



PMID: 39544660 PMCID: PMC11559855 DOI: 10.1177/09727531231208292