Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Burnout in Healthcare Professionals During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Healthcare professionals who are directly involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and general care of patients with SARS-CoV-2 are at risk of developing adverse psychological reactions A cross-sectional study of healthcare professionals aimed to determine the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the mental health of healthcare professionals in two of the largest referral hospitals in Athens, Greece Methods: The study was conducted in the two largest SARS-CoV-2 referral hospitals in Athens, Greece An assessment and the interrelationship of post-traumatic stress disorder, using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised [IES-R]) and burnout, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory [MBI]) was carried out Results: A total of 162 subjects were enrolled in the study Fifty-six (35%) had an IES-R score > 33, suggesting post-traumatic stress disorder Forty-nine (30%) had an MBI score > 27 Seventy-five (46%) had a personal accomplishment score of 10 Stepwise backward logistic regression revealed that the only independent variable that was retained regarding the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder was the emotional exhaustion score of the MBI (at a cut-off of 24 in this scale, the 95% CI of the odds ratio for the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder was 1 077-1 173) Conclusions: In this sample of first-line Greek healthcare professionals against SARS-CoV-2, most of them were proven to be quite resilient to this challenge One-third of them had post-traumatic stress disorder, which depended on their degree of emotional exhaustion Healthcare professionals, as represented by this study, performed their duties without feeling helpless and developing adverse psychological reactions