PTSD common among health workers even after a year of pandemic

London, October 18

Almost 1 / 4 of healthcare staff (23.four per cent) skilled post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) signs throughout probably the most acute part of the earlier pandemic outbreaks, with 11.9 per cent of frontline staff experiencing signs virtually a yr on, new analysis has revealed.

Mental well being issues equivalent to PTSD, anxiousness and despair are frequent amongst healthcare workers throughout and instantly after pandemics, in keeping with researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) within the UK.

“Nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and all support staff based in hospitals where patients with COVID-19 are treated are facing considerable pressure over a sustained period,” stated Professor Richard Meiser-Stedman from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.

Researchers investigated how treating sufferers up to now pandemics equivalent to SARS and MERS affected the psychological well being of the frontline workers.

They checked out knowledge about elevated ranges of psychological misery and located that greater than a 3rd of well being staff (34.1 per cent) skilled signs equivalent to anxiousness or despair through the acute part, dropping to 17.9 per cent after six months.

This determine, nevertheless, elevated once more to 29.three per cent after 12 months or longer.

The workforce hoped that their work would assist spotlight the affect that the COVID-19 pandemic might be having on the psychological well being of docs and nurses world wide.

“In addition to the challenge of treating a large volume of severely unwell patients, frontline staff also have to contend with threats to their own physical health through infection, particularly as they have had to face shortages of essential personal protective equipment,” Meiser-Stedman stated.

The media has reported that healthcare staff treating coronavirus sufferers would face a ‘tsunami’ of psychological well being issues because of their work.

“We wanted to examine this by looking closely at the existing data from previous pandemics to better understand the potential impact of COVID-19,” the authors wrote. They estimated the prevalence of frequent psychological well being problems in healthcare staff based mostly in pandemic-affected hospitals.

They checked out 19 research which included knowledge predominantly from the SARS outbreak in Asia and Canada and which tended to give attention to the acute stage of the pandemic — throughout and as much as round six weeks after the pandemic.

“We found that post-traumatic stress symptoms were elevated during the acute phase of a pandemic and at 12 months post-pandemic,” stated trainee medical psychologist Sophie Allan. IANS