PREVALENCE OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION AMONG REHABILITATIONIST WORKING IN PRIMARY AND TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The number of studies has documented the increasing anxiety and depression among rehabilitationists due to increased workload, burnout, low pay or self-esteem, etc. However, limited information has found in this regard. Therefore, the study aims to identify the prevalence of anxiety and depression among physical and occupational therapists working in primary or tertiary care hospitals.

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional survey was conducted on physical and occupational therapists at primary and tertiary care hospitals', recruited via convenience sampling technique. The data were collected through the standardized Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, sent to participants via email or WhatsApp groups to record responses.

RESULTS

A total number of 147 responses obtained from participants included 121 (82.3%) females and 26 (17.7%) males, respectively. It was reported that (52.4%) participants feel tensed from time to time, (17%) feel frightened if something about to happen and (32.7%) have worrying thoughts in their mind a lot of the time. (12.9%) feel restless very much and (31.3%) get sudden feelings of panic quite often demonstrated that majority of therapists 145 (98.6%) falls into the category of 'anxiety and depression' while only two classified as psychological morbidity.

CONCLUSION

It was concluded that most therapists have anxiety and depression while few were suffering from psychological morbidity. Moreover, occupational and physiotherapists suffer from bullying during their lives and fail to lead an everyday life suffering from a varying level of distress that may lead to adverse physical and mental consequences. Therefore, multicenter trials should be conducted in the future, considering a large sample size to evaluate the disorder's factors and effective interventions for its management.