The evaluation of general psychiatric symptoms of medical staffs in the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey

Abstract

The present study, it is aimed to evaluate the general psychiatric symptoms of medical staff in the 47th and 49th days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey.This study is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2020. 1308 medical staff were included in the survey. Brief Symptom Inventory, State and Trait Anxiety Scale were used to evaluate general psychiatric symptoms. The prevalence of general psychiatric symptoms on the participants ranges from 36.7% to 51.6%. The frequency of state anxiety is 50%. The frequency of general psychiatric symptoms in nurses ranges from 50.2% to 70.3%, 31.4% to 68.3% in doctors, and 37.5% to 49.7% in other professions. General psychiatric symptoms are 1.50-3.46 times more in medical staffs who experience symptoms of COVID-19 and 1.76-2.74 times more in who diagnosed with COVID-19 and 1.77-2.25 times more in who diagnosed with COVID-19 in their immediate relatives and 1.76-3.15 times more in who have immediate relatives dying of COVID-19. In Turkey, the medical staff was affected psychologically by the COVID-19 epidemic. The two most affected groups are nurses and doctors. Traumatic process and threat perception increased general psychiatric symptoms. Our results suggested that psychological support should be increased to medical staff. [Med-Science 2021; 10(2.000): 409-15]

Keywords

• covid-19
• brief psychiatric rating scale
• medical staffs
• mental health