The Impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic on Healthcare Workers with Pre-Existing Psychiatric Conditions

AbstractBoth healthcare workers (HCWs) and psychiatric patients during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have elevated prevalence of psychiatric symptoms, but little is known about HCWs with psychiatric diagnoses. To examine their response to the pandemic, we analyzed their perspective, and association with psychiatric symptoms and stress among HCW with psychiatric diagnosis. Using an online survey of HCW, we analyzed demographics, work information, health factors, open-ended question, sources of stress and standardized mental health scales (Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL)). Sixteen out of 129 HCWs reported a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis (median age 32  years, 8 were females, 8 work in the emergency department). Their perception of the impact severity on symptoms was significantly correlated with all the mental health scales and with stress from avoiding physical contact. In multivariate analysis, PSS score and PCL score were associated with self -rated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on symptoms (standardized beta = .51 for PCL and standardized beta = .55 for PSS). GAD-7 score was significantly related to both impact (standardized beta = .44) and stress from avoiding physical contact (standardized beta = .53). HCWs with psyc hiatric diagnoses reported a range of perception of the impact of the pandemic on their symptoms with inc...
Source: Psychiatric Quarterly - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research