During the COVID-19 pandemic healthcare workers have been under pressure of high workload
and an increased risk of contracting the SARS-Cov-2 virus, while confronting the most
tragic and devastating aspects of the pandemic-related medical realities. These factors
could lead to severe distress with potential consequences for productivity in performing
professional duties, and substantially increased risk for affective reactions, including
clinical states of anxiety, depression and suicidality as compared to the general
population. Thus, we aimed to investigate the changes in rates of anxiety, depression
and suicidality in response to the pandemic among medical staff as compared to a sample
of the general population and to the period of prepandemic time.This study is part
of the large-scale, international multicentre COMET-G project. We assessed the extents
of anxiety, depression and suicidality risks using the Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory
(STAI) with a cut-off score 39/40, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale
(CES-D) with a cut-off score 23/24, and the Risk Assessment Suicidality Scale (RASS)
with a cut-off score 499/500, respectively, in samples of Russian healthcare workers
and the general population.Among 7777 respondents participating in the study, responses
to a query about occupation indicated 1216 healthcare workers. 45.8% of medical staff
vs 40.4% of non-medical staff (χ2=12.42, p<0.001) reported the increased anxiety,
in excess of the clinical anxiety state threshold score of 39 according to the STAI.
High suicidality risks, according to a RASS score > 500, were reported by 8.2% of
medical professionals vs 10.6% of non-medical personnel (χ2=6.35, p=0.012). The increase
in depression rates, including cases of clinical depression according to the threshold
of CES-D ≥ 24, did not differ between the groups.A larger proportion of healthcare
system staff, as compared to the general population, reported a significant increase
in anxiety in response to the pandemic. Compared to medical doctors, other healthcare
system workers had a significantly higher prevalence of depression and suicidality
rates. Exploratory analysis suggested that it was not the occupation per se, but rather
the burden of meaningful working duties that could be associated with psychological
defense mechanisms against depression and suicidality among medical staff.
