Mental Health Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic Long-Term Exposure in Italian Dermatologists

Cristina Ciuluvica (Neagu), Giulio Gualdi, Marco Dal Canton, Fabrizio Fantini, Andrea Paradisi, Paolo Sbano, Marco Simonacci, Daniele Dusi, Gian Marco Vezzoni, Carmine D’Acunto, Maurizio Lombardo, Malvina Zanchi, Zucchi Alfredo, Klaus Eisendle, Francesca Prignano and Paolo Amerio
Additional contact information
Cristina Ciuluvica (Neagu): Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Giulio Gualdi: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Marco Dal Canton: Ambulatory of Medical and Surgical Dermatology Belluno, 32100 Belluno, Italy
Fabrizio Fantini: Department of Dermatology, Hospital “A. Manzoni”, 23100 Lecco, Italy
Andrea Paradisi: Dermatology Unit, General Hospital “Cristo Re”, 00100 Rome, Italy
Paolo Sbano: Dermatology Unit, General Hospital “Belcolle”, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Marco Simonacci: Department of Dermatology, Macerata Hospital, 62100 Macerata, Italy
Daniele Dusi: Department of Dermatology, Macerata Hospital, 62100 Macerata, Italy
Gian Marco Vezzoni: “Don Bosco” Medical Center, 55049 Viareggio, Italy
Carmine D’Acunto: Department of Emergency, Burn Center and Dermatology, “M. Bufalini” Hospital, 47100 Cesena, Italy
Maurizio Lombardo: Unit of Dermatological Diseases, ASST “Sette Laghi”, Hospital of “Circolo”, 21100 Varese, Italy
Malvina Zanchi: Ambulatory of Medical and Surgical Dermatology Venice, 30100 Venice, Italy
Zucchi Alfredo: Department of Dermatology, University of Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy
Klaus Eisendle: Clinic of Dermatology, Central Hospital of Bolzano, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Francesca Prignano: Department of Health Science, Section of Dermatology, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Paolo Amerio: Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: The present study aimed at assessing the consequences of prolonged exposure to COVID-19 distress on mental health in non-frontline health care workers. For this purpose, we have conducted a survey on 425 Italian dermatologists, in the period February–March 2021. The psychopathological symptoms, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD), as well as resilience, have been evaluated. The main factors that influence the physician’s psychological health have been also investigated. Our study showed that the physicians older than 40 years, as well as those who lived this period in company, reported more personal resources, better managing the distress. Resilience, COVID-19 beliefs, COVID-19 working difficulties, and age were the common predictors of the severe psychopathological symptoms. An interesting result is that the lower level of resilience was the most powerful predictor of a more severe depression, as well as of a higher severity of generalized anxiety disorder, but not of COVID-19 PTSD. The fear of COVID-19 was the most powerful predictor of COVID-19 PTSD. Home conditions and previous SARS-CoV2 infection constituted significant predictors of severe depressive symptoms, but not of anxiety and COVID-19 PTSD. These results are useful in a better understanding of protective and risk factors involved in COVID-19 long-term distress exposure.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; anxiety; post-traumatic distress; resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11239/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11239/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11239-:d:665088

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().