Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression among Psychiatric Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Malaysian Perspective

Abstract

The psychological distress reported among frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) is concerning. Little is known about the mental health of non-frontline, psychiatric HCWs, who play a central role in handling the mental health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among psychiatric HCWs and evaluate its association with socio-demographic, socio-economic, work-related factors and coping strategies. The authors proposed a cross-sectional study design using the Hospital Anxiety and Depressive Scale (HADS) and Brief-COPE scale. This study found that the prevalence of anxiety and depression were 22.0% and 16.8%, respectively. A multivariate analysis revealed that married psychiatric HCWs had a lower level of anxiety with OR = 0.31 (95% CI: 0.11–0.83). Psychiatric HCWs who were experiencing financial hardships, were unvaccinated and those who had a shorter duration of service in the psychiatric department had a higher level of depressive symptoms with OR = 0.31 (CI: 1.19–11.27), 3.21 (CI: 0.97–10.52), and 1.01 (CI: 1.00–1.02), respectively. For every increase of one unit of avoidant coping score among respondents, the odds of having anxiety and depression increased by 1.25 times (CI: 1.15–1.37) and 1.20 times (CI: 1.09–1.32), respectively, whereas for every increase of one unit of religious coping score among respondents, the odds of having anxiety reduced by 1.42 times (CI: 1.10–1.84). The authors highlight that psychosocial measures addressing the relatively high levels of anxiety and depression among psychiatric HCWs should be a key priority to ensure the sustainment of mental health services in the face of this prolonged pandemic.

Seroprevalence of COVID-19 and Psychological Distress among Front Liners at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah Campus during the Third Wave of COVID-19

“…When we stratified the respondents according to age, sex, and type of job, there were no significant differences in psychological distress. Our findings were in contradiction with previous studies [ 47 ]; however, they were aligned with [ 19 ]. Therefore, our findings suggested that age, sex, or type of job were not protective factors for psychological distress.…”

“…Zhang et al [ 12 ] asserted that it was crucial to determine factors associated with the psychological distress of front liners, with past studies reporting that psychological constructs, such as psychological flexibility, psychological mindedness, mindfulness, and coping styles, were among protective factors for psychological distress [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Psychological flexibility refers to flexible psychological reactions in order to confront distress and increase capacity to accept the present moment [ 21 ].…”

Resilience and Depressive Symptoms Mediated Pathways from Social Support to Suicidal Ideation Among Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Campus Lockdown in China

“…High-quality global data on mental health for vulnerable populations during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is needed. 56 Psychosocial measures of population should be priority for mental health services, 57 mental health interventions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic should be highlighted on international and national public health agendas to improve overall wellbeing. 58 …”

Anxiety Levels and Coping Strategies to Deal with COVID-19: A Cross-Cultural Study among the Spanish and Latin American Healthcare Populations

“…Additionally, health professionals have been directly involved with their COVID-19 patients at different stages—diagnosis, treatment, care, and in the process of death—as family members were unable to accompany COVID-19 patients, who ended up dying alone. Because of this, they are more vulnerable to psychological disorders, such as anxiety [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”