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During infectious disease outbreaks, healthcare workers have suffered adverse psychological reactions. To learn whether this was true of the COVID-19 outbreak, researchers conducted a cross-sectional, geographically stratified survey of 1257 healthcare workers (39% physicians; 61% nurses; 72% of nurses had junior titles) from 34 hospitals (20 in Wuhan; 7 elsewhere inside Hubei province, and 7 outside the province).
The researchers used validated rating scales to assess anxiety, depression, insomnia, and distress/post-traumatic stress symptoms from January 29 to February 3, 2020, close to the Wuhan outbreak's peak. Overall, 42% were directly caring for patients with COVID-19. There were high rates of depression (50%), anxiety (45%), insomnia …