Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
Curr Neuropharmacol. 2021;19(8):1161-1163. doi: 10.2174/1570159X19666210311103136.
The year 2020 will go down in modern history as the one ravaged by a pandemic, the one which humbled the entire world. From the richest and most advanced nations to the poorest and least developed ones, it exposed all of our vulnerabilities. The loss of life, health disparities and economic adversities, aggravated by political and ideological tensions, added multiple layers of stress and anxieties to an already stressed American society.
The educational institutions in the United States from the central to the local units demonstrated coherence in leadership, guided with flexibility and compassion, which paved the way for smooth operations. However, anxiety among students and faculty of university and college campuses is undeniable. In-person instruction was halted. Research labs and offices were locked down or operating with limited personnel. Thus, the challenges to have timely instruction and to move the research enterprise forward have been enormous. Provided here is a perspective based on a literature search using PubMed and Google with search words "COVID-19, stress, college students", "COVID-19, stress, US graduate students", and "COVID-19, stress, postdoc researchers".
This article is an opinion piece, part personal and part peer experiences. It is presented in light of studies suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant mental stress and anxiety upon students and faculty members within the academy.
Loss of face-to-face interactions as a result of virtual instructions, lack of in-person mentoring, and loss of research productivity have affected mental health and well-being of the academic community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the ingenuity of the human spirit has innovated solutions to catch up on research productivity and to pursue academic excellence.
2020 年将作为被大流行病肆虐的一年载入现代史册，这场大流行病使整个世界都陷入困境。从最富有和最先进的国家到最贫穷和最不发达国家，它暴露了我们所有的脆弱性。生命损失、健康差距和经济逆境，加上政治和意识形态紧张局势的加剧，给本已承受压力的美国社会增加了多层压力和焦虑。
美国的教育机构，从中央到地方单位，都表现出领导上的一致性，灵活而富有同情心，为顺利运作铺平了道路。然而，大学生和大学校园教职员工的焦虑是不可否认的。面授课程已经停止。研究实验室和办公室被关闭，或者只有有限的人员在运作。因此，及时进行教学和推进研究企业的挑战是巨大的。这里提供的是基于使用 PubMed 和 Google 进行文献搜索的观点，搜索词为“COVID-19、压力、大学生”、“COVID-19、压力、美国研究生”和“COVID-19、压力、博士后研究人员”。
本文是一篇观点文章，部分是个人经历，部分是同行的经历。它是根据研究提出的，这些研究表明，COVID-19 大流行给学院内的学生和教职员工带来了重大的精神压力和焦虑。
由于虚拟教学而导致的面对面互动减少、缺乏面对面的指导以及研究生产力的丧失，影响了学术界的心理健康和福祉。尽管面临大流行病的挑战，但人类精神的创造力为追赶研究生产力和追求学术卓越创新了解决方案。
