Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Prevalence of mental disorders in healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To conduct a systematic review of the literature evaluating the prevalence of mental disorders in health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:

This is a systematic review conducted based on the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. The databases used were the Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde (BVS) and the services of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) via PubMed, with the search strategies: “COVID-19” AND “Mental health”; “COVID-19” AND “Mental health” AND “health personnel”, in Portuguese and English, selecting observational and/or prevalence articles published from 2020 onwards.

Results:

The search resulted in the identification of 18,643 articles, and the final sample consisted of 9 articles. The most frequently evaluated symptoms were symptoms of depression, anxiety and insomnia in professionals who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic period, predominantly female and mean age of 34.5 years. The average prevalence of anxiety, depression and insomnia was respectively 40.3%, 39.9% and 36.1%, measured in 8,866 health professionals. Health professionals working on the front line in the fight against Covid-19 had higher prevalence of common mental disorders in relation to other health professionals.

Conclusions:

The following were associated with a higher prevalence of CMD symptoms: female sex, frontline work, longer working hours, history of psychotropic medication use, inadequate working conditions, use of alcohol and tobacco, and work in the nursing field. The importance of mental health care strategies for health professionals is observed.

KEYWORDS
Mental health; health professionals; COVID-19; anxiety; depression

Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Av. Venceslau Brás, 71 Fundos, 22295-140 Rio de Janeiro - RJ Brasil, Tel./Fax: (55 21) 3873-5510 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: editora@ipub.ufrj.br