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The elephant in the room: the stressful psychological effects of COVID-19 pandemic in mental healthcare workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

A. Minelli ,
S. Barlati ,
M. Vezzoli ,
S. Carletto ,
C. Isabello  and
A. Vita
A. Minelli*
Affiliation:
University of Brescia, Department Of Molecular And Translational Medicine, Brescia, Italy
S. Barlati
Affiliation:
University of Brescia, Department Of Clinical And Experimental Sciences, Brescia, Italy
M. Vezzoli
Affiliation:
University of Brescia, Department Of Molecular And Translational Medicine, Brescia, Italy
S. Carletto
Affiliation:
University of Torino, Department Of Neuroscience “rita Levi Montalcini”, Torino, Italy
C. Isabello
Affiliation:
ASL TO3, Mental Health Service Of Susa, Torino, Italy
A. Vita
Affiliation:
University of Brescia, Department Of Clinical And Experimental Sciences, Brescia, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Despite the large amount of research concerning the impact of COVID-19 on health care workers, to date few targeted MHWs. Moreover, none has investigated the vulnerability due to exposure to previous traumatic events among health care workers.

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the psychological distress in MHWs after the first lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the more impacted regions of the North of Italy, to understand which COVID-19, sociodemographic and professional variables as well as previous stressful life experiences, could have had greater negative effects.

Methods

The online survey occurred from 28-June to 10-August 2020. This included questions regarding sociodemographic factors, professional information, COVID-19 exposure. Moreover, three validated self-report questionnaires were administered: Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5), Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21).

Results

271 MHWs completed the survey. At least 20% had elevated levels of psychological distress with post-traumatic symptoms. Stratifying for professional roles, the nurses resulted the most affected, with significantly higher scores in terms of intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal and avoidance behaviors. Several variables affected psychological distress in MHWs, but stronger effects were done by age, professional roles, increased workload and worst working environment during COVID-19 pandemic, to had experienced the separation of family members, but also had experienced during their life of a severe human suffering (physical and/or psychological) on oneself or on a loved one.

Conclusions

Our data underlying the importance of recent but also previous severe stressful events as risk factors to develop post-traumatic symptoms reducing the resilience of the subjects investigated.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

psychological distressCovid-19mental healthcare workersresilience/vulnerability
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S305
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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