School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica, Mexico City, Mexico.
Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2023 Oct 19;26(10):747-760. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyad046.
Increased levels of occupational stress among health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic have been documented. Few studies have examined the effects of the pandemic on mental health professionals despite the heightened demand for their services.
A multilingual, longitudinal, global survey was conducted at 3 time points during the pandemic among members of the World Health Organization's Global Clinical Practice Network. A total of 786 Global Clinical Practice Network members from 86 countries responded to surveys assessing occupational distress, well-being, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
On average, respondents' well-being deteriorated across time while their posttraumatic stress symptoms showed a modest improvement. Linear growth models indicated that being female, being younger, providing face-to-face health services to patients with COVID-19, having been a target of COVID-related violence, and living in a low- or middle-income country or a country with a higher COVID-19 death rate conveyed greater risk for poor well-being and higher level of stress symptoms over time. Growth mixed modeling identified trajectories of occupational well-being and stress symptoms. Most mental health professions demonstrated no impact to well-being; maintained moderate, nonclinical levels of stress symptoms; or showed improvements after an initial period of difficulty. However, some participant groups exhibited deteriorating well-being approaching the clinical threshold (25.8%) and persistently high and clinically significant levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (19.6%) over time.
This study indicates that although most mental health professionals exhibited stable, positive well-being and low stress symptoms during the pandemic, a substantial minority of an already burdened global mental health workforce experienced persistently poor or deteriorating psychological status over the course of the pandemic.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，医护人员的职业压力水平有所增加。尽管对他们的服务需求增加，但很少有研究关注大流行对心理健康专业人员的影响。
在大流行期间，世界卫生组织全球临床实践网络的成员在 3 个时间点进行了一项多语言、纵向、全球性的调查。共有来自 86 个国家的 786 名全球临床实践网络成员对评估职业压力、幸福感和创伤后应激症状的调查做出了回应。
平均而言，受访者的幸福感随着时间的推移而恶化，而他们的创伤后应激症状则略有改善。线性增长模型表明，女性、年轻、为 COVID-19 患者提供面对面的医疗服务、成为与 COVID 相关暴力的目标，以及生活在中低收入国家或 COVID-19 死亡率较高的国家，随着时间的推移，这些因素都预示着较差的幸福感和更高水平的压力症状。增长混合模型确定了职业幸福感和压力症状的轨迹。大多数心理健康专业人员的幸福感没有受到影响；保持中度、非临床水平的压力症状；或在最初困难期过后有所改善。然而，一些参与者群体的幸福感逐渐恶化，接近临床阈值（25.8%），且创伤后应激症状持续高且具有临床意义（19.6%）。
这项研究表明，尽管大多数心理健康专业人员在大流行期间表现出稳定、积极的幸福感和低水平的压力症状，但在本已负担沉重的全球心理健康工作队伍中，相当一部分人在大流行期间持续经历着较差或恶化的心理状态。
