Critical care staff are suffering from trauma and severe anxiety due to the COVID-19 – UK study

LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly half of staff working in intensive care units (ICUs) in England in the COVID-19 pandemic have severe anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, according to some reports, feeling they would be better off dead. to a study published Wednesday.

Many ICU nurses and doctors meet the clinical threshold for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or alcohol problems, and the symptoms are so severe that some reported contemplating self-harm or suicide.

Such poor mental health among ICU staff caring for critically ill and dying COVID-19 patients is likely to affect their ability to work effectively and impair their quality of life, the researchers leading the study said.

More than 81,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Britain, the fifth highest official death toll in the world in the global pandemic.

More than 3 million people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19 and the government says hospitals and intensive care units are on the verge of overflowing.

The pressure on ICU staff, who work with very ill patients for long periods in areas where the risk of COVID-19 exposure is high and where staff and equipment shortages pose problems on a daily basis, has been particularly high.

“The high mortality rate among COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU, together with the difficulty of communicating and providing adequate end-of-life support to patients … are very likely to have been very difficult stressors. for all staff working in the ICU, ”said Neil Greenberg, a professor at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience who co-led the research.

The study, published in the journal Occupational Health, was conducted in June and July, before Britain began experiencing its latest rise in infections.

It found that among more than 700 new ICU health workers across England, 45% met the probable clinical significance threshold for at least one of four serious mental health disorders: severe depression (6%), PTSD (40%) , severe anxiety (11%) or drinking problems (7%).

Most troubling, according to the researchers, more than one in eight of the students reported frequent thoughts of self-harm or suicide, such as thinking about being better dead or injuring themselves, over the previous two weeks.

The findings “highlight the potential profound impact that COVID-19 has had on the mental health of UK frontline staff,” Greenberg said, and show the urgent need for mental health services to be quickly accessible to all health workers.