Anxiety levels and anxiolytics taken during the COVID-19 pandemic by Health Professionals

Abstract

The first case of the coronavirus disease, later known as COVID-19, was detected in China in mid-December 2019, and it quickly spread across all continents, causing a pandemic. In the fight against this pandemic, health professionals have a key role and are required to have enormous physical and psychological resistance.

The effort made by health professionals during this situation has generated high levels of anxiety and fear, which can potentiate another major public health problem, mental health.

Therefore, this study aims to assess anxiety levels and the use of anxiolytics by health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, a questionnaire was applied to acquire data on the anxiety characteristics of health professionals and their use of anxiolytics.

Firstly, this work consisted of a bibliographic review that compiles the diverse information on anxiety, from its definition, the principal signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, using drugs, such as anxiolytics, or non-pharmacological treatment, and the incidence of this pathology in Portugal.

In the second stage, this work presents a descriptive, correlational, and retrospective study carried out with 614 health professionals through a questionnaire, of which 81.8% were female and 18.2% male, with an average age of 35, 36 years. Of these, 10.3% were physicians, 9.1% were nurses, 45.4% were pharmacy professionals, and 30.1% were senior diagnostic and therapeutic technicians. These professionals had levels of 24.4% of moderate anxiety and 9.9% of severe anxiety. Of the respondents, 16% reported habitually consuming medication to control anxiety, 19.7% mentioned taking anxiolytics during the COVID-19 pandemic and 61.03% resorted to physical exercise to relieve anxiety. Considering the analysis of anxiety levels, female health professionals (11.2%), nurses (23.2%) and professionals working in primary health care units (14.0%) present significantly higher values. Finally, the respondents who had the highest consumption of anxiolytics in COVID-19 were doctors (38.1%), nurses (33.9%) and health professionals (24.2%) who have people in their care.

Through this work, it was possible to verify that the COVID-19 pandemic not only caused physical health problems but also damage to psychological health. There are professionals who have revealed high levels of anxiety and who use anxiolytics for their treatment. This shows that it is necessary to monitor and promote psychologically healthier environments for health professionals and ensure the good use of anxiolytic drugs.