While some of the high rates of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) seen in healthcare workers during the pandemic are specifically COVID-19-related, a more significant number of cases were linked to trauma that occurred earlier in their lives, research has revealed.
Previous research conducted during the pandemic has reported high rates of PTSD, depression and other mental health symptoms amongst healthcare workers.
However, that research has typically failed to assess if earlier trauma was linked to symptoms or when the symptoms began, making it difficult to conclude whether the high rates of symptoms were due to the pandemic.
Previous research has also relied on self-report measures of symptoms, a less accurate method of diagnosing mental health problems.
Now, a new study from the University of Oxford has assessed 103 frontline healthcare staff working directly with COVID-19 patients with clinical interviews, considered the gold-standard approach to diagnosing mental health problems.
Researchers found that trauma linked to PTSD was more likely to relate to occupational or personal trauma that had occurred before the pandemic.
Other key findings include:
- Rates of PTSD were high at 44 per cent, as were rates of depression at 39 per cent
- 76 per cent of healthcare staff reported trauma that was unrelated to the pandemic
- However, 24 per cent of healthcare workers reported a trauma that was related to their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was an almost even split between occupational versus personal trauma linked to PTSD, where 52 per cent of staff diagnosed with PTSD reported occupational trauma and 48 per cent reported trauma that occurred in their personal lives as the index event associated with symptoms.
“These are important findings,” said associate professor of experimental psychology Jennifer Wild, who led the study.
“They highlight the need to assess the trauma associated with PTSD symptoms as well as when the symptoms began. Only then can we be sure which trauma is linked to PTSD symptoms.
“This research helps to clarify the PTSD picture among healthcare workers. In the 76 per cent of staff who had PTSD that was unrelated to the pandemic, it is likely that the stressful nature of working during the pandemic exacerbated symptoms or made it harder to recover from them.
“There was a significant minority, 24 per cent, who did develop PTSD due to COVID-19 trauma.”
Whilst PTSD was more likely to have pre-dated the pandemic, major depressive disorder was more likely to develop during the pandemic.
Dr Aimee McKinnon, a clinical research psychologist, who assessed many of the healthcare workers, said: “The pandemic has drawn our attention to high rates of trauma and depression in healthcare workers. Our findings suggest that much of this difficulty was pre-existing and unrelated to the pandemic.
“This warrants specific focus in service planning to best understand and support the needs of the healthcare workers who look after us.”
