The wounded healer: A narrative review of the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers

Abstract

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The Impact of Coping Strategies and Perceived Family Support on Depressive and Anxious Symptomatology During the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) Lockdown

“…In their study, increasing age, an absence of work-related troubles and being married or being a cohabitant reduced the likelihood of at least one mental health outcome. Furthermore, in a recent meta-analysis the prevalence of anxiety symptomatology, investigated in 17 studies was obtained as 31.9%, whereas the prevalence of depressive symptoms, investigated in 14 studies, was reported as 33.7% (30). While the above studies focused mainly on the general population, the currently available research suggests that frontline healthcare workers in particular have experienced increased depression and anxiety symptoms [see (31) for an overview of ten studies conducted in Asia on this topic].…”

The Role of Family Physicians in a Pandemic: A Blueprint

“…There are also increasing reports of high rates of anxiety, insomnia and depressive symptoms amongst the general public and frontline medical staff, especially during a lockdown [ 25 , 26 ]. An effective pandemic response must also include a mental health response, and GPs could be an effective part of this response.…”

Two parts of the equation: “Flattening the curve” and “raising the line”

“…First, we would like to point out that "flattening the curve" is not the only defining graphic of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic but we also need to "raise the line" of our healthcare capacity. It is clear that health systems and health workers worldwide are under tremendous stress from the growing pandemic; reports of overworked healthcare staff (Ng et al, 2020) and delayed access to care (Lazzerini et al, 2020) are not uncommon. Importantly, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is dissimilar from the common flu or other coronaviruses: it is much more contagious and infected persons may remain relatively asymptomatic (Yeo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020).…”