The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in an intensive care unit (ICU): psychiatric symptoms in healthcare professionals
Open accessAbstract
Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic period, the structure of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) activities changed fast. It was observed that the mental and physical health of the frontline workers reached levels of extreme clinical and psychological concern.Objective Understand the impact that COVID-19 is having on the front-line clinical team in the ICU environment, as well as reveal what proposals are being made to mitigate the clinical and psychological impacts that this group experiences.Method A systematic review was made following the PRISMA protocol (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis). We included any type of study on health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with results about their mental health. We were, therefore, interested in quantitative studies examining the prevalence of problems and effects of interventions, as well as qualitative studies examining experiences. We had no restrictions related to study design, methodological quality or language.Results Twenty-one studies reported on the urgent need for interventions to prevent or reduce mental health problems caused by COVID-19 among health professionals in ICU. Eleven studies demonstrated possibilities for interventions involving organizational adjustments in the ICU, particularly linked to emotional conflicts in the fight against COVID-19.Conclusion The disproportion between the need for technological supplies of intensive care medicine and their scarcity promotes, among many factors, high rates of psychological distress. Anxiety, irritability, insomnia, fear and anguish were observed during the pandemic, probably related to extremely high workloads and the lack of personal protective equipment.
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Existing literature states that professionals at higher risk of psychoemotional alteration are those working in highly complex areas such as emergencies or CCU, or on the front line with infectious-contagious patients.
“the existing literature, which states that those professionals with a higher risk of suffering psychoemotional alteration are those who work in highly complex areas such as emergencies or CCU, or those who work on the front line with infectious-contagious patients (47, 48).”
From Evolution of burnout syndrome in Spanish healthcare professionals during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: psychosocial variables involved (2025) · cites this paper as [47]
The Results (page not provided) associate ICU teams with anxiety, depression and exhaustion, and the Discussion describes psychological risks for front-line healthcare workers. The paper does not establish that emergency or coronary-care-unit staff are at higher risk, so the claim's broader list of high-risk areas is not fully supported. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Gil-Almagro, F., Carmona-Monge, F. J., García-Hedrera, F. J., & Peñacoba-Puente, C. (2025) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1522134 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“…findings contrast with the existing literature, which states that those professionals with a higher risk of suffering psychoemotional alteration are those who work in highly complex areas such as emergencies or CCU, or those who work on the front line with infectious-contagious patients (47, 48).”
- Authors
- da Silva, F. C. T., & Barbosa, C. P.
- Affiliations
- Faculdade de Medicina do ABC (BR)
- Venue
- Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-08
- Volume
- 110
- Pages
- 110299
- ISSN
- 0278-5846 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7948677
- OpenAlex
- W3136993193
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 1.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, intensive care unit, healthcare workers, psychiatric symptoms, mental health, psychological distress, anxiety, insomnia, irritability, fear, work overload, personal protective equipment shortage, organizational interventions
- MeSH terms
- Occupational Stress, COVID-19, Mental Disorders, Health Personnel, Humans, Intensive Care Units, Occupational Diseases
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