High prevalence of mental disorder symptoms among medical and other health specialty residents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Background The coronavirus epidemic was first identified in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. Because of the pandemic, health professionals, including residents in medicine and other health specialties, began working under intense physical and psychological pressure and were at a greater risk of developing mental disorders and psychological distress. Methods This study evaluated the prevalence of symptoms indicative of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and stress among medical residents and other health specialties during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. This study adopted a cross-sectional design that included postgraduate students in medical and other health residency programmes in Brazil. The recruitment extended from July 29 to September 5, 2020. Results In total, 1,313 resident medical and other health residents participated in the study. The Scale DASS-21 identified depression, anxiety and stress in 51.3%, 53.4% and 52.6% of the participants, respectively. Based on the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), 61.9% of the participants had low resilience. A total of 60.9% of the residents had high scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item depression module (PHQ-9). Conclusions We found a high prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among medical and nonmedical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.