Anxiety and Depression in Psychiatry Residents of Universitas Gadjah Mada During Early COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Health workers at the forefront in handling COVID-19 cases are particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 infections and mental health problems. Psychiatry residents who studied and worked in hospitals were expected to provide mental health and psychosocial treatments to health workers and COVID-19 patients. However, it was necessary to know the mental status of psychiatric residents in uncertain situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to observe anxiety and depression in psychiatric residents of Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada who worked in Sardjito Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. This quantitative non-experimental study was conducted using cross sectional and descriptive analytic design. All 45 psychiatry residents of Universitas Gadjah Mada participated in the study and completed the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). We used Chi-squared test, Student T-test and Pearson Correlation to understand correlations between demographic characteristics with depression and anxiety level. We found that only age was negatively correlated with the degree of anxiety (r =-0.364, p = 0.014). However, some other variables might be correlated with several behaviors related to anxiety and depression. More study is needed to find the reasons for these correlations and to prevent mental health problems in residents.