Trauma of outbreak ‘ equal to terrorism and wars’

THE RISK of post traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) among frontline health and social care workers dealing with the Covid19 pandemic is on a par with terrorist attack survivors and soldiers returning from war, MPs have heard.

Dr Michael Bloomfield told the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee that this form of psychological trauma is also being seen among patients who have recovered after being severely ill with Covid- 19.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.

Those with the condition often relive traumatic events, such as actual or threatened loss of life or serious injury, through nightmares and flashbacks.

Dr Bloomfield, who is head of the translational psychiatry research group at the University College London, said the PTSD rate among health and social care workers and survivors of severe Covid- 19 is over 20 per cent, and for anxiety disorders and depression, it is over 30 per cent. He added that while these figures may be over- estimated, “they are still significantly over the expected rates of these disorders”.

Dr Bloomfield said: “The available data indicates that the risk of PTSD amongst health and social care workers and patients who survived severe Covid is of a similar magnitude as those surviving other mass casualty events such as terrorist attacks, or as is seen in military personnel who’ve returned from war.”

He added: “There’s therefore an imminent need to both detect and treat the survivors of psychological trauma.”