COVID-19 Takes Toll on Mental Health of Hospital Health Professionals

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a psychological toll on health care professionals who work in large, urban medical centers, raising their risk for poor health down the road, suggests a study inGeneral Hospital Psychiatry. Nearly 6 in 10 health professionals in the COVID-19 Healthcare Provider Study, an ongoing survey of health care workers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, screened positive for symptoms of acute stress. Nearly half screened positive for symptoms of depression, and a third screened positive for symptoms of anxiety.“Sustained COVID-19-related psychological distress is expected to have downstream impacts on health care workers' physical health,” wrote Ari Shechter, Ph.D. of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and colleagues. “There is an association between clinical workplace environmental stres sors and long-term cardiometabolic risk, and stress can influence health in ways that are both direct (systemic inflammation, arterial damage, increased blood pressure) and indirect (maladaptive coping such as substance use, poor sleep). Sustained psychological distress and poor sleep may disturb th e body's physiological stress response system, thereby contributing to further health risk.”The findings are based on an analysis of responses from 657 physicians, residents/fellows, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who completed the survey between April 9 and April 24. The survey was designed to assess the partic...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: anxiety Ari Shechter coping behaviors COVID-19 frontline responders health care workers stress Source Type: research