Psychological distress is a phenomenon that often occurs not only in patients but in normal subjects under excessive psychological pressure. Health care workers are at particular risk of distress in a pandemic. It negatively affects the quality of life, social and physical functioning and can be a trigger of different diseases. The pharmaceutical drugs can be unnecessary active for healthy subjects. Nutraceuticals may be the adequate choice in this situation.

Assessing the effectiveness of the unique antistress combination of the three herbal ingredients (standardized extracts of passionfruit, melissa and catnip) in medical workers with the signs of psychological distress

Twenty-four subjects-medical doctors from 30 to 55 years old (15 women; 9 men) were included into the one-week study. Antistress combination was administered 1 tablet tid. The first part of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI “State anxiety”) andor a free self-report were done twice (before and at the end of the study)

From 24 subjects 19 subjects filled out the STAI, free self-reports were received from 10 subjects (5 people provided information about their condition in two forms). STAI scores showed statistically significant decrease in anxiety at the end of the study. A positive effect the emotional condition and quality of sleep was noted in free self-reports. Adverse effects of nutraceuticals were rare, mild, and transient. No negative impact on quality of working condition was registered.

The pilot study showed the promising effect of antistress combination in medical workers in specific stressful situation.

No significant relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major challenge for both the overall health system and the individual ability for health professionals to stress coping.

To find the link between the perception of danger from coronavirus and the severity of burnout syndrome in medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.

We used a socio-demographic questionnaire (20 questions), a Stress Perception Questionnaire (Linville, 1987; Ababkov et al., 2016), a Modified Pandemic Perception Questionnaire (Broadbent et al.,2006;Yaltonsky et al., 2017), and Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach et al., 1996; Lozinskaya et a. 2007). 249 medical workers (58 men and 191 women) took part in the online survey between April 27 and October 26 in Russia.

The severity of stress is positively correlated with the perception of pandemic as threatening (r=0.532, p=0.000) and unknown disease (r=0.297, p=0.000). Stress severity also correlates with all burnout parameters: exhaustion (r=0.737, p=0.000), depersonalization (r=0.342, p=0.000), and belief in personal achievement (r=-0.417, p=0.000). The perception of pandemics as threatening events is significantly associated with exhaustionm (r=0.458, p=0.000), depersonalization (r=0.133, p= 0.036), and belief in personal achievement (r=-0.152, p=0.016).The feeling of uncertainty from the pandemic is statistically significantly associated with exhaustion (r=0.242, p=0.000), while the feeling of control over the pandemic is positively associated with belief in personal achievements (r=0.129, p=0.042) and negatively associated with exhaustion (r=-0.161, p=0.011) and depersonalization (r=-0.125, p=0.049).

Uncertainty and a sense of threat from the coronavirus and the pandemic are significant factors of stress and emotional burnout for health workers. To determine the interaction between parameters such as signs of burnout, perception of the COVID-19 pandemic and the severity of stress, further construction of a structural model is required.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Fangcang shelter hospitals were opened in Wuhan, China, to isolate and care for patients with mild or moderate symptoms. The patients and staff in the hospitals faced mental health challenges. This paper reports the experiences and mental health needs from them.

Following the qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted in the EastWest Lake Fangcang Shelter Hospital, Wuhan on March 2020. Data collection and analysis was based on grounded theory. Open coding was adapted and a structured codebook was developed through coding seminars. The themes and subthemes were then confirmed through thematic analysis. The findings were further explained and integrated in a theoretical framework.

A total of 10 COVID-19 patients and 13 staff, including doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and policemen participated in the interviews. They have common needs, as well as their own needs. The perspectives from the staff also did complement for needs of the patients. The mental health needs were generalized into four themes, that is, basic needs, information and communication, emotional needs, and social support, each with several subthemes. In addition, there were some external factors that regulated the internal needs, which were summarized in a theoretical framework.

The study indicates the directions on hospital management, mental health services, policy making, and social work to meet the mental health needs of the inpatients and staff from temporary shelter hospitals like Fangcang in Wuhan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To determine the ability of a novel responder mental health self-triage system to predict post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in emergency medical responders after a disaster.

Participants in this study responded to Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013. They completed the Psychological Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (PsySTART) responder triage tool, the PTSD Checklist (PCL-5) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) shortly after responding to this disaster. The relationships between these 3 tools were compared to determine the association between different risk exposures while providing disaster medical care and subsequent levels of PTSD or depression.

The total number of PsySTART responder risk factors was closely related to PCL-5 scores ≥38, the threshold for clinical PTSD. Several of the PsySTART risk factors were predictive of clinical levels of PTSD as measured by the PCL-5 in this sample of deployed emergency medical responders.

The presence of a critical number and type of PsySTART responder self-triage risk factors predicted clinical levels of PTSD and subclinical depression in this sample of emergency medical workers. The ability to identify these disorders early can help categorize an at-risk subset for further timely “stepped care” interventions with the goals of both mitigating the long-term consequences and maximizing the return to resilience. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:19–22)