General sanitary containment during the Coronavirus epidemic: Medico-psychological consequences in general population, caregivers, and subjects suffering previously from mental disorders (Retrospective on the repercussions of lethal mass risks, scientific models of collective confinement, first clinical observations, implementation of countermeasures and innovative therapeutic strategies)

The situation we are currently experiencing is unprecedented. Declaring a state of health emergency in order to curb a frightening epidemic, the authorities have decreed the home confinement of the majority of the population of our country for several weeks. In a few days, innumerable questions arise for very diverse spaces: epidemiological, immunological, sociological, information scientists, medical, administrative, political, etc. We propose a reflection intended to describe the psychological risks, to clarify the disorders found, and to discuss the means to take care of them in the duration. We base our thinking on a review of the literature confronted with our current clinical experience, including concerning the possibilities of dematerialised medico-psychological monitoring. We recall the collective repercussions of emerging lethal mass risks, and in particular viral infectious agents, before approaching the existing scientific models of collective confinement according to military operations in war zones, polar wintering missions and aerospace conquest. It appears that for the study of a global containment, somewhat studied during previous pandemics, the conceptions of stress reaction and psychodynamic adaptation prove to be relevant. We detail the psychological consequences of confinement on individual mental health and their countermeasures according to three population typologies: general population, population of caregivers on the front line against the epidemic, and population of subjects already suffering from mental illness or seeing their disorders reappear. We also refer to works in social cognitive psychology explaining how, in an anxiety-provoking situation, reasoning can be biased and lead to choices that ultimately prove to be not very rational, in the opinion of those who made them. The current situation in the health sector is favourable in this, as evidenced by the "debate on chloroquine" widely reported in the media and on social networks, opposing conclusions most often decided on the basis of beliefs on contrary to evidence based medicine. The psychological repercussions of confinement appear conditioned by the multiple forms that it can take: voluntary or suffered, more or less prolonged, spent at home or in another place, lived in individual isolation or in a small community, associated other stressors and/or traumatic factors, etc. The home confinement of a population across a country has never been assessed. This experience s