LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly half of staff working in intensive care units (ICU) in England during the COVID-19 pandemic suffer from severe anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, and some report they are better off dead are, according to a study published Wednesday.
Many ICU nurses and doctors meet the clinical threshold for PTSD, anxiety, or drinking, and the symptoms are so severe that some have reported considering self-harm or suicide.
Such acutely ill mental health among IC staff caring for critically ill and dying COVID-19 patients is likely to impair their ability to work effectively and harm their quality of life, said the researchers who led the study.
More than 81,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Britain, the world’s fifth highest official death toll in the global pandemic.
More than 3 million people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19 disease and the government says hospitals and intensive care units are on the verge of being overwhelmed.
The pressure on ICU workers – who work long-term with very ill patients in areas where the risk of COVID-19 exposure is high and where staff and equipment shortages are a daily problem – is particularly high.
“The high death rate among COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU, coupled with difficulties with communication and the provision of adequate end-of-life support … are very likely to be very challenging stressors for all ICU staff. works, ”said Neil Greenberg, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, who co-led the study.
The study, published in the journal Occupational Health, was conducted in June and July – before Britain started experiencing the latest wave of infections.
The study found that of the more than 700 health professionals in nine ICUs across England, 45% achieved the threshold for probable clinical significance for at least one of four serious mental illnesses: major depression (6%), PTSD (40%) , severe anxiety (11%) or problem drinking (7%).
Most alarmingly, the researchers said, more than one in eight of those in the study reported frequent self-harm or suicidal thoughts – such as thinking about being better off or hurting themselves – in the past two weeks.
The findings “highlight the potentially profound impact COVID-19 has had on the mental health of frontline personnel in the UK,” Greenberg said, showing that mental health care must be rapidly accessible to all health professionals.
Reporting by Kate Kelland, published by Timothy Heritage