Psychological Effects on Medical Doctors from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Outbreak : A Comparison of Whether They Worked at the MERS Occurred Hospital or Not, and Whether They Participated in MERS Diagnosis and Treatment

Dae Hyun Um; Jang Sub Kim; Hae Woo Lee; So Hee Lee

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2017.56.1.28

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Um, Kim, Lee, and Lee: Psychological Effects on Medical Doctors from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Outbreak : A Comparison of Whether They Worked at the MERS Occurred Hospital or Not, and Whether They Participated in MERS Diagnosis and Treatment

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2017; 56(1): 28-34.

Published online: 28 February 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2017.56.1.28

Psychological Effects on Medical Doctors from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Outbreak : A Comparison of Whether They Worked at the MERS Occurred Hospital or Not, and Whether They Participated in MERS Diagnosis and Treatment

Dae Hyun Um, MD¹, Jang Sub Kim, MA¹, Hae Woo Lee, MD, PhD², So Hee Lee, MD, PhD¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

²Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

Address for correspondence: So Hee Lee, MD, PhD. Department of Psychiatry, National Medical Center, 245 Eulji-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 04564, Korea. Tel +82-2-2260-7292, Fax +82-2-2268-5028, psyhee@hanmail.net

Received 16 November 2016 Revised 10 January 2017 Accepted 17 January 2017

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to evaluate psychological effects of an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a newly emerged infectious disease, on doctors.

Methods

After the MERS outbreak was over, we conducted an online survey of doctors who worked at the hospitals in which exposure to MERS cases had been confirmed or who were directly involved in MERS diagnosis and treatment. The Patient Health Questionnaires-9 (PHQ-9) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) assessment methods were used to assess the severity of depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms among the 64 doctors participating in the survey.

Results

The results of the survey indicate that 26.6% (n=17) of participants exhibited depressive symptoms and 7.8% (n=5) had post-traumatic stress symptoms. The doctors employed at hospitals with MERS cases had higher PHQ-9 and IES-R mean scores than those in doctors were not so employed. In contrast, there was no significant difference in those test scores between doctors who participated directly in MERS diagnosis and treatment and those doctors who did not.

Conclusion

The survey demonstrated that 28.1% (n=18) of doctors involved in MERS care suffered from depressive or posttraumatic stress symptoms, even though the MERS infection was being controlled. Working at a hospital with MERS cases was the primary determinant of the adverse psychological outcomes among doctors ; however, direct participation in the diagnosis and care of MERS patients was not significantly related to such outcomes.

Keywords: Middle East respiratory syndrome, Emerging Infectious Disease, Heathcare worker, Depressive symptoms, Posttraumatic stress symptoms

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the study respondents

^* : p<0.05. PHQ-9 : Patient Health Questionnaire-9, IES-R : Impact of Event Scale-Revised

Table 2

PHQ-9 and IES-R scores among groups

^* : p<0.05, ^† : p<0.001. SD : Standard deviation, PHQ-9 : Patient Health Questionnaire-9, IES-R : Impact of Event Scale-Revised, MERS : Middle East respiratory syndrome

Table 3

Comparison of the perception of threat of MERS among groups

^* : p<0.05, ^† : p<0.001, ^‡ : Shown as a percentage of the total number who perceived some threat, ^§ : Reversed scoring. MERS : Middle East respiratory syndrome

Table 4

Logistic regression analysis assessing independent predictor of symptom

B : Regression coefficient, SE : Standard error, OR : Odds ratio, CI : Confidence interval, MERS : Middle East respiratory syndrome

Notes

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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