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The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on the American psyche, with a third of Americans now showing signs of clinical depression or anxiety, a rate twice as high as before the pandemic, according to Census Bureau data. Those grim statistics are likely even more dire for the health care workers on the front lines of the crisis, experts say.
While it's too early to truly quantify the effect that treating patients under combat-like conditions will have on doctors in the coming months or years, preliminary research out of China highlights the mental health risk that American health care workers potentially face.
Of more than 1,200 health care workers surveyed in China, roughly half showed symptoms of depression or anxiety, according to a JAMA Network Open article published in March. More than a third of those surveyed reported insomnia. Some 70% said they were distressed. Nurses, women, health workers who had direct contact with COVID-19 patients and those in Wuhan, the epicenter of China's outbreak, reported the most severe symptoms.
The consequences of ignoring doctors' mental health during the pandemic are grave.
In April, Dr. Lorna Breen, medical director of a New York City emergency department, which had nearly been overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, died by suicide at age 49. She had no prior history of mental illness.
"Make sure she’s praised as a hero, because she was," Breen's father told the New York Times. "She’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died."
"We have to see emotional and mental health support as being as important and vital as we see PPE [personal protective equipment]," said Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Broady, a psychiatry professor and director of the well-being program at University of North Carolina.
Every hospital and medical facility should be asking themselves, "what are we doing to prevent the emotional impact of being a health care provider in this environment?" she said.
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