Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 87, November 2018, Pages 123-127
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Psychological impact of the 2015 MERS outbreak on hospital workers and quarantined hemodialysis patients

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Little research on psychological impact of MERS outbreaks is available.

  • Medical staff that performed MERS-related tasks showed the highest risk for PTSD symptoms.

  • The risk increased even after home quarantine.

  • Prompt and continuous psychiatric intervention is needed in infectious diseases.

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to assess the immediate stress and psychological impact experienced by quarantined patients undergoing hemodialysis and university hospital workers who treated patients Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) during its outbreak.

Design

The group of subjects consisted of 1800 hospital practitioners and 73 quarantined patients undergoing hemodialysis. The Impact of Events Scale–Revised (IES-R) was administered to the practitioners twice, once during the hospital shutdown and again one month after the shutdown. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were administered to patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Results

During the initial stages of the MERS outbreak, healthcare workers who performed MERS-related tasks scored significantly higher on the total IES-R and its subscales. In the second assessment of the high-risk group, the sleep and numbness subscale scores from the IES-R differed depending on the implementation of home quarantine, and the intrusion subscale scores differed depending on the performance of MERS-related tasks.

Conclusion

Medical staff that performed MERS-related tasks showed the highest risk for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms even after time had elapsed. The risk increased even after home quarantine. Prompt and continuous psychiatric intervention is needed in high mortality infectious disease outbreaks.

Keywords

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection
Quarantine
Healthcare workers
Mental health

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Declaration of conflicts of interest: the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

1

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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