The interplay between acute post-traumatic stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms on healthcare workers functioning during the COVID-19 emergency: A multicenter study comparing regions with increasing pandemic incidence

Nov 3, 2021Journal of affective disorders

How stress, depression, and anxiety together affect healthcare workers’ functioning during COVID-19 in regions with rising cases

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

23.5% of frontline healthcare workers reported severe post-traumatic stress symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

22.4% of healthcare workers experienced moderate to severe anxiety symptoms.
19.3% reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms.
22.8% exhibited impairment in global functioning.
Healthcare workers from higher-exposure regions had significantly worse scores across all mental health assessments.
There is a significant positive association between post-traumatic stress symptoms, depressive symptoms, and functioning impairment.

AI simplified

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) deployed to the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic are at risk for developing mental disorders, with a possible impact on their wellbeing and functioning. The present study aimed at investigating post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), anxiety and depressive symptoms and their relationships with impairment in the functioning impairment among frontline HCWs from three Italian regions differently exposed to the first wave of the COVID-19 emergency: Tuscany (low), Emilia-Romagna (medium) and Lombardy (high).

METHODS: 514 frontline HCWs were consecutively enrolled in hospital units devoted to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. They completed the IES-R, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to assess PTSS, depressive and anxiety symptoms respectively, and the WSAS to investigate functioning impairment.

RESULTS: A total of 23.5% of HCWs reported severe PTSS, 22.4% moderate-severe anxiety symptoms, 19.3% moderate-severe depressive symptoms and 22.8% impairment in global functioning. HCWs from the higher-exposure regions reported significantly higher scores in all instruments than those from lower-exposure regions. In a multiple linear regression model, PTSS, depressive and anxiety symptoms presented a significant positive association with the functioning impairment. Both PTSS and depression resulted to be independently related to functioning impairment.

LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional design and the use of self-report instruments.

CONCLUSIONS: Depressive and PTSS appear to be the greatest contributors to functioning impairment in HCWs exposed to a massive stressful sanitary event as the COVID-19 pandemic. A more accurate assessment of work-related mental health outcomes in such population could help planning effective prevention strategies and therapeutic interventions.

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license. Use the link below to read it at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

The interplay between acute post-traumatic stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms on healthcare workers functioning during the COVID-19 emergency: A multicenter study comparing regions with increasing pandemic incidence

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief