Doctors Who Treat Ebola Feel More Socially Isolated

LIVESCIENCE.COM   by Rachael Rettner                                                                         Feb. 13, 2015

Doctors who take care of very sick Ebola patients may feel socially isolated, but surprisingly, they may not feel more stressed than usual, a new study from Germany suggests.

Researchers surveyed 46 health care workers who treated Germany's first Ebola patient in August 2014, as well as 40 health care workers who worked in the same hospital but did not treat the Ebola patient.

The researchers who did the study hypothesized that the people who treated the Ebola patient would have more symptoms of psychological distress because they were working in a challenging environment that presented a risk that they could become infected with the deadly virus.

But to the contrary, the study found that those who treated the Ebola patient had about the same levels of anxiety, depression and fatigue as the other workers at the hospital who did not treat the patient. And both groups had about the same level of psychological stress as the general population.
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http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-treat-ebola-feel-more-socially-isolated-153713587.html;_ylt=AwrBJSAtb95UJG8A1JzQtDMD

Read complete CDC EID Journal report
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/5/14-1988_article

Suggested citation for this article:
Lehmann M, Bruenahl CA, Löwe B, Addo MM, Schmiedel S, Lohse AW, et al. Ebola and psychological stress of health care professionals [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 May [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2105.141988