Burnout and somatic symptoms among frontline healthcare professionals at the peak of the Italian COVID-19 pandemic
Open accessAbstract
Italy is among the most severely hit nations in terms of hospital patients' overload, and its healthcare workforce is struggling to cope with challenges that could threaten their own wellbeing. In this scenario, understanding the health-related consequences of COVID-19 outbreak on Italian frontline healthcare professionals is urgent. Our study provides a first account of the huge psycho-physical impact of COVID-19 outbreak for healthcare workers in Italy. Italian healthcare professionals reported relevant work-related psychological pressure, emotional burnout and somatic symptoms. This result requires attention as previous studies showed that emotional distress is associated with long-lasting effect on professionals' health, including risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Nurses were more likely to develop PTSD than other healthcare workers during viral outbreaks.
“A number of studies found that nurses were more likely to develop PTSD (Tang et al., 2017; Barello et al., 2020; Song et al., 2020)”
From Impact of viral epidemic outbreaks on mental health of healthcare workers: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Barello et al., 2020
Recent and previous studies on healthcare worker health during pandemic outbreaks demonstrate that burnout is associated with increased risk of somatic and psychic symptoms and has a direct impact on stress-related symptomatology, anxiety, mood disorders, substance abuse, suicides, professional performance, early retirements, and unexpected resignations.
“In fact, recent and previous studies on HW health during pandemic outbreaks (COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and H1N1 influenza) demonstrate that burnout is associated with increased risk of manifesting somatic and psychic symptoms [43,45] and it has a direct impact on stress-related symptomatology, anxiety, mood disorders, substance abu”
From Anxiety, depression and risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in health workers: the relationship with burnout during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy (2021) · cites this paper as [43]
HCWs are at particular risk of adverse psychological outcomes, including stress, anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, emotional exhaustion, burnout, and post-traumatic stress disorder, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Consistently with the results of many studies on the psychological impact of past pandemics on health professionals [14,15,16], the literature published until now about COVID-19 revealed that HCWs are at particular risk of adverse psychological outcomes, i.e., of developing more severe mental symptoms, including stress, anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, emotional exhaustion, burnout, as wel”
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- Authors
- Barello, S., Palamenghi, L., & Graffigna, G.
- Affiliations
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Barello, Serena
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-08
- Volume
- 290
- Pages
- 113129
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7255285
- OpenAlex
- W3029443790
- Cited by
- 713
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 133 · 2022: 219 · 2021: 203 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 60.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (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
- burnout, somatic symptoms, frontline health workers, COVID-19 pandemic, emotional distress, psychological pressure, occupational stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, healthcare worker well-being, Italy
- MeSH terms
- Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Burnout, Professional, Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Italy, Male, Occupational Diseases, Pneumonia, Viral, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics
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