Mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic: a study of medical residency training over the years

Abstract

This study aims to assess the symptoms of burnout, depression, and anxiety in Brazilian medical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare residents' beliefs and clinical practices related to COVID-19 patients among all six years of medical residency training in Brazil. METHODS: A quantitative study was conducted in April 2020 with a convenience sample of medical resident volunteers from an anonymous online survey. This investigation collected sociodemographic information and used the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) to measure burnout, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to measure depression, and the General Anxiety Disorders (GAD-7) to measure generalized anxiety disorder. This study also developed a COVID-19 Impact Questionnaire (CIQ-19) to assess the residents' beliefs and clinical practices related to COVID-19 patients. RESULTS: Our sample comprised 3071 respondents. Depressive symptoms were the most common among second-year residents (70.5%), followed by anxiety symptoms (56.0%) and burnout (55.2%) among fourth-year residents. We also observed burnout symptoms (55.1%) among second-year residents. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of mental illnesses in some years of residency. Our study could not conclude the reasons why the incidence varies among levels of physician training. Final year medical residents have avoided seeing COVID-19 patients.

Mental health disorders among post graduate residents in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Our study demonstrated a high burnout rate of 51% amongst residents consistent with what other authors found in their study examining burnout amongst medical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 29 , 31 ]. Lower rates of burnout were reported by psychiatry residents in a study conducted by Alkhamees et al during the outbreak in Saudi-Arabia [ 32 ].…”

“…A similar study done in Qatar by Khoodoruth et al reported high rates of depression, anxiety and stress among medical residents exposed to COVID-19 [ 28 ]. Furthermore, a study done in Brazil by Mendonça et al, looking at medical residents also found a high level of depressive symptoms specifically among second-year residents, while anxiety was more common among the fourth-year residents [ 29 ]. These results are consistent with our findings demonstrating high levels of depressive symptoms amongst residents.…”

“…Collins et al found that GAD-7 scores were significantly higher amongst surveyed senior surgical residents compared to interns [ 30 ]. As stated above, Mendonça et al also found that anxiety was more common in fourth year residents during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 29 ]. Interestingly, a greater proportion of interns reported they were moderately or extremely anxious about possible COVID-19 infection compared to senior residents.…”

Mental disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America – a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…A total of 65 unique samples from 62 studies involving 196 950 participants from Latin America were included in this meta-analysis (Badellino et al ., 2020, 2022; Campos et al ., 2020, 2021 a , 2021 b ; Chen et al ., 2021 a , 2021 b ; Civantos et al ., 2020; Cortés-Álvarez et al ., 2020; Dal'Bosco et al ., 2020; De Boni et al ., 2020; Fernández et al ., 2020; Giardino et al ., 2020; Guiroy et al ., 2020; Malgor et al ., 2020; Martinez et al ., 2020; Medeiros et al ., 2020; Mier-Bolio et al ., 2020; Monterrosa-Castro et al ., 2020; Mora-Magaña et al ., 2020; Passos et al ., 2020; Paz et al ., 2020; Samaniego et al ., 2020; Schuch et al ., 2020; Yáñez et al ., 2020; Antiporta et al ., 2021; Boluarte-Carbajal et al ., 2021; Brito-Marques et al ., 2021; Cayo-Rojas et al ., 2021; Cénat et al ., 2021; Dantas et al ., 2021; de Oliveira Andrade et al ., 2021; Espinosa-Guerra et al ., 2021; Esteves et al ., 2021; Fernandez et al ., 2021; Ferreira et al ., 2021; Feter et al ., 2021; Flores-Torres et al ., 2021; García-Espinosa et al ., 2021; Goularte et al ., 2021; Landaeta-Díaz et al ., 2021; Loret de Mola et al ., 2021; Mautong et al ., 2021; Mendonca et al ., 2021; Mota et al ., 2021; Nayak et al ., 2021; Puccinelli et al ., 2021; Ribeiro et al ., 2021; Schmitt Jr et al ., 2021; Scotta et al ., 2021; Serafim et al ., 2021; Souza et al ., 2021; Torrente et al ., 2021 a , 2021 b ; Villela et al ., 2021; Vitorino et al ., 2021; Werneck et al ., 2021; Zhang et al ., 2021 a , 2021 c ; da Silva Júnior et al ., 2021; Robles et al ., 2021) (Table 1 and online Supplementary Table S2). Some studies include multiple independent samples.…”

“…For example, one study examined the prevalence of both general healthcare workers and frontline healthcare workers. Among them, 35 samples (53.85%) were of general populations (Passos et al ., 2020; Antiporta et al ., 2021; Boluarte-Carbajal et al ., 2021; de Oliveira Andrade et al ., 2021; Espinosa-Guerra et al ., 2021; Ferreira et al ., 2021; Landaeta-Díaz et al ., 2021; Mautong et al ., 2021; Ribeiro et al ., 2021; Schmitt Jr et al ., 2021; Souza et al ., 2021; Torrente et al ., 2021 b ; Vitorino et al ., 2021; Badellino et al ., 2022), two samples (3.08%) were of frontline healthcare workers (Dal'Bosco et al ., 2020; Robles et al ., 2021), 19 samples (29.22%) were from general healthcare workers (Chen et al ., 2020; Civantos et al ., 2020; Giardino et al ., 2020; Guiroy et al ., 2020; Malgor et al ., 2020; Monterrosa-Castro et al ., 2020; Mora-Magaña et al ., 2020; Samaniego et al ., 2020; Yáñez et al ., 2020; Zhang et al ., 2021 a ; Villela et al ., 2021; Nayak et al ., 2021; Dantas et al ., 2021; Mota et al ., 2021; Brito-Marques et al ., 2021; Campos et al ., 2021 b ; Mier-Bolio et al ., 2020; Robles et al ., 2021) and nine samples (13.85%) were based on university students (Medeiros et al ., 2020; Campos et al ., 2021 a ; Cayo-Rojas et al ., 2021; Esteves et al ., 2021; Fernandez et al ., 2021; García-Espinosa et al ., 2021; Mendonca et al ., 2021; Scotta et al ., 2021; da Silva Júnior et al ., 2021). Of the 62 studies, 32 were from Brazil (49.22%) (Table 1).…”