Mental Health Disorders in Critical Care Clinicians

During the COVID-19 pandemic, working in the ICU has been significantly challenging for healthcare workers and has been associated with high levels of mental health disorders. Primary sources of stress include physical and mental exhaustion, shortages of resources, communication challenges, social isolation, unusually high number of deaths, sadness and grief, distress of families unable to see their loved ones, fear of getting infected and for some, residual symptoms after having contracted the virus.

Risk factors for mental health disorders are particularly high for ICU healthcare providers. Already, the rate of burnout among ICU workers is high, and now, with the pandemic and multiple surges, healthcare providers face additional anxiety and stress. There is also a significantly high element of fear - fear of contracting the virus, fear of dying, and fear of infecting loved ones. All these factors contribute to the psychological burden among ICU healthcare workers.

A study was conducted to evaluate the mental health symptoms in healthcare providers facing COVID-19. Sixteen ICUs in France during the second wave were included in the analysis. Participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R, for post-traumatic stress disorder), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The study objective was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for anxiety, depression, PTSD and severe burnout among ICU healthcare providers.