Psychotherapy and Follow-Up in Health Care Workers After the COVID-19 Epidemic: A Single Center’s Experience

Abstract

Objective The present study aims to analysis the mental health of high-risk health care workers (HHCWs) and low-risk HCWs (LHCWs) who were respectively exposed to COVID-19 wards and non-COVID-19 wards by following up on mental disorders in HCWs in China for 6 months. Methods A multi-psychological assessment questionnaire was used to follow up on the psychological status of HCWs in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University in Xuzhou City (a non-core epidemic area) at 6 months after the first evaluation conducted during the COVID-19 epidemic. Based on the risk of exposure to COVID-19 patients, the HCWs were divided into two groups: high-risk HCWs, who worked in COVID-19 wards, and low-risk HCWs, who worked in non-COVID-19 wards. Results A total of 198 HCWs participated in the study, and 168 questionnaires were selected for evaluation. Among them, 93 (55.4%) were in the HHCW group and 75 (44.5%) were in the LHCW group. Significant differences were observed in salary, profession, and altruistic behavior between the two groups (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the anxiety, depression, insomnia, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores between the two groups. Logistic regression revealed that work stress was a major joint risk factor for mental disorders in HCWs. Among all the HCWs, a total of 58 voluntarily participated in psychotherapy; the analysis showed a significant decrease in anxiety, depression, PTSD, work stress, and work risk after attending psychotherapy. There were also significant differences in positive and negative coping styles before and after psychotherapy. Conclusion In the present follow-up, work stress was the major contributing factor to mental disorders in HCWs. Psychotherapy is helpful in terms of stress management and should be provided to first-line COVID-19 HCWs.

Changes in sleep patterns in primary care workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 in Shanghai: a cross-sectional study

“…To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate multidimensional sleep patterns in primary HCWs during the first wave of the 2022 COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai. Other studies in China have generally focused on sleep as a secondary component of overall mental health 3 or specific provider groups, such as HCWs from tertiary medical centres 12 , intensive care unit practitioners 13 , nurses 14 , and anaesthesiologists 15 . Benedict et al 5 investigated the sleep patterns of HCWs and non-HCWs using various sleep dimensions.…”

Changes of sleep patterns in primary care workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 in Shanghai

“…To our knowledge, this study is the rst to investigate multi-dimensional sleep patterns in primary HCWs during the rst wave of the 2022 COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai. Other studies in China have generally focused on sleep as a secondary component of overall mental health (3) or speci c provider groups, such as HCWs from tertiary medical centers (20), intensive care units (ICU) practitioners (21), nurses (22), and anesthesiologists (23). Hassinger (5) et al investigated sleep patterns of all frontline and non-frontline providers using various sleep dimensions.…”