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Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused significant changes in the everyday functioning of the general population, as well as medical workers. Medical personnel, especially those in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, could have increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The objective of this study was to explore the mental health status of medical personnel in Serbia during the pandemic by assessing stress levels, symptoms of anxiety, and depression., Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted as an online-based survey, in the period from 8 April to 14 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included 1678 participants, and the snowball sampling technique was used to reach healthcare professionals. The level of stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed among medical personnel in Serbia by the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Beck Depression Inventory IA (BDI-IA), and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), respectively., Results: A total of 1678 participants completed the survey, with a mean age of 40.38 ± 10.32 years, of which 1,315 (78.4%) were women, and 363 (21.6%) were men. Out of these, 684 (40.8%) participants were medical personnel, and 994 (59.2%) were people of other professions. Frontline medical personnel reported higher scores on all measurement tools than second-line medical personnel (e.g., mean PSS scores: 19.12 ± 5.66 versus 17.53 ± 5.71; p = .006; mean GAD-7 scores: 8.57 ± 6.26 versus 6.73 ± 5.76; p = .001; mean BDI-IA scores: 9.25 ± 8.26 versus 7.36 ± 7.28; p = .006). Binary logistic regression showed that the probability of developing more severe anxiety symptoms doubles in frontline medical personnel., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that frontline medical personnel is under an increased psychological burden during the COVID-19 pandemic, having higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression than second-line medical personnel. Adequate measures should be taken to relieve this burden and preserve the mental health of frontline medical personnel., (© 2020 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Individuals with serious mental illness are more affected by emotional reactions, including suicidal behavior due to COVID‐19 and psychosocial consequences of pandemic. The current cross-sectional study aimed to explore the possible association of COVID-19 and suicidal behavior (suicide ideation and attempt) before and during pandemic-associated lockdown in Serbia. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 104 adult psychiatric inpatients admitted at Psychiatric Clinic, University Clinic Center Niš, Serbia, after ending lockdown and compared the obtained results with 181 adult psychiatric inpatients admitted during the same period in 2019 and 2018. Suicide ideation were more frequent in 2020 comparing with 2019 and 2018 (25 vs 12.5%, vs 9.41%; p < 0.05). Around 28% of patients with suicide attempts were exposed daily to the information related to COVID-19 coming from social media, while this frequency was significantly lower, only 7.55% (p < 0.1), among patients with no suicide ideation or attempts. Adjustment disorder was more frequent among patients with suicide attempts in comparison to the patients with suicide ideation (32 vs 11%), especially in patients without suicide ideation and attempts (32 vs 0%, p < 0.001). Of all studied patients with suicide attempts during 2020, 60% were not in the previous psychiatric treatment before admission.