London: Healthcare staff handling the COVID pandemic since the last 18 months are experiencing high levels of depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and burn-out, a global review of such studies has found.
The review, conducted by the University of York and the Mental Health Foundation, also revealed that COVID-19 patients with other physical health problems, and children and adolescents are struggling with a host of mental health issues during the pandemic.
The study looked at 25 systematic reviews conducted during the early months of the pandemic. Many of these studies were of hospital workers in China.
Estimates varied from 12 per cent for anxiety in one review of healthcare workers in hospital, to 51 per cent for depression and PTSD in another review.
The team suggested that more support needs to be put in place for hospital workers dealing with the COVID pandemic.
"Many people worldwide have felt the impact of the COVID pandemic on their mental health, but some groups of people may be more at risk of experiencing poor mental health than others," said lead author Noortje Uphoff, a research Fellow at the varsity.
"Healthcare workers may already have a higher risk of adverse mental health outcomes due to the stressful nature of their work. However, there were some indications that mental health may be further affected as a result of working on the frontline during an infectious disease outbreak," Uphoff added.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, also noted the risk of adverse mental health outcomes in children due to changes in household interactions and social changes such as school closures.
