Depression and Anxiety Symptoms among General Hospital Employees in need of Mental Health Treatment

Background Depression and anxiety are common and disabling mental disorders worldwide. It has been described a high prevalence of these disorders among health professionals. Aim This study aimed to investigate the association between occupation and depressive/anxiety symptoms, education levels, among professionals from a Brazilian General Hospital in need of mental health treatment. Methods This is a longitudinal twelve-years retrospective study, involving health professionals. Socio-demographic data were collected as well as two standardized scales for depression and anxiety symptoms. Results Data from 506 employees needing a mental health intervention have been described: mean age was 34.6 years, 46.2% of them worked in the administrative sector, 35.0% were nursing assistants, 7.5% were nursing technicians, 6.7% were nurses, and 4.5% reported other occupations. According to the ICD-10 criteria, the rates of diagnosis of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders were 60.9% and 37%, respectively. Conclusions The rate of depression and anxiety is higher among health professionals than the general population. Thus, specific programs of prevention based on resilience, continuing education and health promotion are needed. Highlights - Although 53,9% of studied individuals did not mention any kind of areas of difficulty in the workplace, 32.8% reported difficulties with coworkers or bosses. - According to the ICD-10 criteria, diagnoses of depressive disorders (60.9%) and anxiety disorders (37%) were highly prevalent. - Nursing technicians and nursing assistants reported higher somatic cluster BDI scores than other professionals of technical staff, but they were less inclined to receive a psychiatric diagnosis.