Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Aug 2022)
Psychotherapy and Follow-Up in Health Care Workers After the COVID-19 Epidemic: A Single Center’s Experience
Abstract
Hao Chen,1,2,* Qing Ma,3,* Bo Du,1 Yan Huang,1 Shi-Guang Zhu,1 Sheng-Li Li,4 De-Qin Geng,1 Xing-Shun Xu2,5,6 1Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Medical Records and Statistics, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China; 5Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215000, People’s Republic of China; 6Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: De-Qin Geng, Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18052268197, Email [email protected] Xing-Shun Xu, Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13915411326, Email [email protected]: The present study aims to analysis the mental health of high-risk health care workers (HHCWs) and low-risk HCWs (LHCWs) who were respectively exposed to COVID-19 wards and non-COVID-19 wards by following up on mental disorders in HCWs in China for 6 months.Methods: A multi-psychological assessment questionnaire was used to follow up on the psychological status of HCWs in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University in Xuzhou City (a non-core epidemic area) at 6 months after the first evaluation conducted during the COVID-19 epidemic. Based on the risk of exposure to COVID-19 patients, the HCWs were divided into two groups: high-risk HCWs, who worked in COVID-19 wards, and low-risk HCWs, who worked in non-COVID-19 wards.Results: A total of 198 HCWs participated in the study, and 168 questionnaires were selected for evaluation. Among them, 93 (55.4%) were in the HHCW group and 75 (44.5%) were in the LHCW group. Significant differences were observed in salary, profession, and altruistic behavior between the two groups (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the anxiety, depression, insomnia, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores between the two groups. Logistic regression revealed that work stress was a major joint risk factor for mental disorders in HCWs. Among all the HCWs, a total of 58 voluntarily participated in psychotherapy; the analysis showed a significant decrease in anxiety, depression, PTSD, work stress, and work risk after attending psychotherapy. There were also significant differences in positive and negative coping styles before and after psychotherapy.Conclusion: In the present follow-up, work stress was the major contributing factor to mental disorders in HCWs. Psychotherapy is helpful in terms of stress management and should be provided to first-line COVID-19 HCWs.Keywords: COVID-19, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, work stress
