Lai et al指出在中國武漢肺炎流行期，14%醫師及16%護理師有中至重度憂鬱症狀，但這篇6天蒐集資料，4周完成分析的文章，留下許多待解的問題：這個族群原本的心理狀況如何？這個結果是醫護人員原本的工作壓力還是因為這個疾病的爆發可能被隔離而造成？如Camus所言，” This sense of being abandoned, which might in time have given characters a finer temper, began, however, by sapping them to the point of futility.”更重要的問題是，這些狀況會不會持續甚至越來越嚴重？
Lai et al這篇文章是一個提醒。2003年SARS之後有一項3年的追蹤研究，23%的醫護人員有中至重度的憂鬱症狀。在流行病、戰爭、公共衛生危機以外，醫護人員平常就面對如山的壓力，在緊急狀況可能會加劇，但也反應這項職業本來的壓力。這些壓力遠超過”過勞”這個攏統的概念。William Osler認為，行醫是一項使命，Lai et al這篇文章提醒，這項使命不是沒有代價的。
(財團法人國家衛生研究院 莊淑鈞博士摘要整理)
Across the world, Dr Li Wenliang, MMed, has become the face of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China. The ophthalmologist, who tried to alert his colleagues to this novel coronavirus and subsequently became an early victim of the disease, was among many thousands of health care workers who continue to struggle with limited resources to treat patients with COVID-19 while staving off an even larger pandemic. Lai et al1 describe another ongoing struggle at the COVID-19 epicenter, namely its consequences on the mental health of clinicians and other health care workers.
….
Author：Roy H. Perlis
原文連結：https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2763224