[Comment] COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health of healthcare professionals

Tsamakis,Konstantinos; Rizos,Emmanouil; Manolis,Athanasios J.; Chaidou,Sofia; Kympouropoulos,Stylianos; Spartalis,Eleftherios; Spandidos,Demetrios A.; Tsiptsios,Dimitrios; Triantafyllis,Andreas S.

doi:10.3892/etm.2020.8646

[Comment] COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health of healthcare professionals

Authors:
- Konstantinos Tsamakis
- Emmanouil Rizos
- Athanasios J. Manolis
- Sofia Chaidou
- Stylianos Kympouropoulos
- Eleftherios Spartalis
- Demetrios A. Spandidos
- Dimitrios Tsiptsios
- Andreas S. Triantafyllis
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Affiliations: Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, ‘ATTIKON’ University Hospital, 12462 Athens, Greece, Department of Cardiology, Asklepeion General Hospital, 16673 Athens, Greece, 1st Department of Paediatrics, University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece, 2nd Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, 11527 Athens, Greece, Laboratory of Clinical Virology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece, Neurology Department, Evexia Rehabilitation Centre, 63080 Chalkidiki, Greece
Published online on: April 7, 2020 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2020.8646
Pages: 3451-3453
Copyright: © Tsamakis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

In light of the unprecedented public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is highly important to acknowledge the psychological impact of this mounting threat on healthcare professionals. Previous experience from smaller scale epidemics and emerging literature around COVID-19 show that the unparalleled amount of stress that healthcare workers are dealing with, is associated with increased psychological morbidities. We have depicted the psychological burden that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed on healthcare professionals in Greece and have reviewed the literature around the effect of previous epidemics on frontline healthcare staff. Moreover, we discuss potential triggers and the need for measures to minimise the psychological pressure on those at the frontline against this biothreat.

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