key: cord-1000757-bv6g9px3 authors: Wu, Jing; Chen, Xiangdong; Yao, Shanglong; Liu, Renyu title: Anxiety persists after recovery from acquired COVID-19 in anaesthesiologists date: 2020-07-07 journal: J Clin Anesth DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2020.109984 sha: cfc7ec4952c1caf9c09537529bfaf18b830e59c2 doc_id: 1000757 cord_uid: bv6g9px3 nan During the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic medical providers may develop psychosocial problems, especially these who stand at the frontline battling this contagious disease. 1, 2 It was reported that an Italian nurse with coronavirus committed suicide, fearing the possibility of infecting others. 3 Anaesthesiologists are the frontline medical providers taking care of COVID-19 patients in operating rooms and intensive care units, and they provide the necessary intubations for severe COVID-19 patients. They have a high risk of contracting the novel coronavirus as well as the anxiety that accompanies this. We hypothesized that anaesthesia providers who contracted COVID-19 might have a high prevalence of elevated anxiety, and that this anxiety would persist after their physical recovery. Following approval from the institutional review board of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, we sent an inquiry to 138 anaesthesia department leaders in 138 hospitals in Hubei Province, the epicenter of COVID-19 in China, to identify anaesthesiologists who might have contracted COVID-19. Eighteen anaesthesiologists with possible hospital acquired COVID-19 from 8 hospitals were identified. A subsequent survey (Appendix) was sent to these 18 anaesthesiologists to investigate their wellbeing, outcome, and anxiety level. According to registration information from the Anaesthesia Quality Control Center of Hubei, the number of registered anaesthesiologists in these 138 hospitals is 1,427; thus, the rate of acquired COVID-19 for all anaesthesiologists is estimated to be about 1.26% (18/1427). Only one of the responding anaesthesiologists might have contracted the infection from providing service for labor and delivery. Thus, the rate of infection for anaesthesiologists related to labor and delivery service is approximately 1 out of 1427 (0.07%). Fourteen (77.8 %, 14/18) valid questionnaires were received from the 18 anaesthesiologists who contracted COVID-19. The other four of those who received questionnaires were unwilling to provide information. Table 1 Renyu Liu (1) What is your age, gender, and years of practice in anesthesiology? Did you perform analgesia/anaesthesia for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19? If Yes, please provide the number of the cases Did you perform analgesia or anaesthesia for puerperas who were suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19? If Yes, please provide the number of puerperas What kind of protective measures were taken if the patient was suspected or confirmed with COVID-19? Did the patient have cough during anaesthesia? Have you been diagnosed with COVID-19? If the answer is Yes How many days after the anaesthesia care event did you start to have symptoms? How many days after the anaesthesia care event did you get the diagnosis of COVID-19? What were your initial symptoms? (10) Which clinical type do you belong to How many days were you hospitalized? Have you recovered or are you still recovering? How many days was your course of COVID-19? Were you under quarantine or isolation after the anaesthesia event? If Yes, please provide the number of days How many clinical service days did you lose? Have any of your family members or friends had COVID-19 after the anaesthesia event related to the COVID-19 patient? Did you feel anxiety or fear during your sick days (None/mild/moderate/severe)? (18) Did you feel anxiety or fear after recovery (None/mild/moderate/severe