Psychosomatic disturbances in health care personnel during pandemic COVID-19

In the case of physicians, health personnel in general and associated personnel, somatization is one of the various mental disorders that affect this population. Evidence still points to the absence of gender differences or association with age or working conditions. However, in the course of the current pandemic, there are reports of an increase in mental disorders of psychosomatic origin in physicians and nurses. Some of the reasons for this increase are related to low resilience, perceived stress and gender.

The full prevalence of somatic disorders in healthcare personnel is unclear, although, it has been identified that medical personnel have a 1.6 higher risk of suffering from this condition than non-medical personnel. The presence of Covid-19 has a significant impact on mental health as it contributes to increased symptomatology.

Hence the importance that should be given to this type of phenomena and that should be focused on this type of professionals. In the context of Ecuador, an increase in psychological symptoms (including psychosomatization) was evidenced, however, the works associated with this line of research are scarce, so it is necessary to deepen in this type of studies. Likewise, in health personnel, a similar response pattern is also reported, due to the effect of the pandemic with the increase of symptoms, although it should be clarified that these studies are not exclusive of psychosomatic symptomatology.

This situation in health personnel should be taken with caution in order to make adequate inferential estimates in the prevention of future conditions similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this is relevant in turn because this research is a pioneer in the region in the study of psychosomatic phenomena in health personnel and contributes to the analysis of this phenomenon in this type of personnel who traditionally tend to be susceptible due to the type of work they perform.

Raúl González-Salas

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1623-3709