Mental health problems faced by healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic–A review

Introduction The spread of novel corona virus (COVID-19) across the globe and the associated morbidity and mortality challenged the nations by several means. One such underrecognized and unaddressed area is the mental health issues medical staff develop during the pandemic. Materials and methods This review aimed to review the literature about mental health problems faced by health care workers (HCW) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Literature search was conducted in the following databases: PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Embase. All types of articles published in the last 4 months (January 2020-April 2020) which were relevant to the subject of the review were searched. A total of 23 articles were selected by initial screening and 6 articles were included in the final review. Results Review of all the 6 articles showed that current research focused on assessing several aspects of mental health affected in HCW due to COVID-19. Several sociodemographic variables like gender, profession, age, place of work, department of work and psychological variables like poor social support, self-efficacy were associated with increased stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia in HCW. There is increasing evidence that suggests that COVID-19 can be an independent risk factor for stress in HCW. Conclusion Regular screening of medical personnel involved in treating, diagnosing patients with COVID-19 should be done for evaluating stress, depression and anxiety by using multidisciplinary Psychiatry teams.