Cases of anxiety and panic attacks have recently been presented at a Nadi-based private clinic since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
Dr Kris Naidu of Prem’s Medical Clinic said he continued to receive cases related to mental health on a daily basis.
“Recently due to COVID-19, there have been a lot of mental health issues, there has been a lot of stress in society, there is a lot of anxiety and there is a lot of panic because of loss of jobs and people keep hearing and reading in the media something they have never seen,” Dr Naidu said.
“We have recently seen an influx of cases where patients are presented with anxiety attacks or panic attacks and it keeps going up. In the last month, there have been five per week, at least one or two a day presented at the clinic.”
Dr Naidu said this was a worrying trend that needed to be taken into urgent consideration.
He said patients who were presented to his clinic did not have underlying medical conditions and were healthy.
“They lost their jobs. They do not know how they are going to feed their families so this is a huge mental health problem.
“We have to come up with a plan and do something, this is a real issue and it’s a side effect of the bigger problem which is COVID-19.
“The news about the pandemic can make people restless, all this can take its toll on people.”