How the exposure to trauma has hindered physicians' capacity to heal: prevalence of PTSD among healthcare workers

Background and Objectives: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition affecting individuals exposed to trauma in the past. This article evaluates the prevalence of PTSD in practicing physicians and how it influences work performance. Methods: A review of the literature, followed by data extraction and meta-analysis were performed. Articles were searched for in PubMed, Web of Science, and Medline using keywords: ("physician" AND "ptsd"), as well as Mesh-terms ("stress disorders, post-traumatic" AND "physicians"). Since 1980, 1363 unique hits published in English were identified and filtered by pre-specified inclusion criteria to yield a sample of 110 full-text articles examining the prevalence of PTSD among healthcare workers. Among these, 9 articles represented an accurate examination of the prevalence of PTSD among physicians only. Information was extracted on the demographic, as well as PTSD prevalence data, from these studies for final comparison. Results: Across all studies (n = 9) we examined, the prevalence of PTSD among physicians of both genders (n = 1616) was 14.8%, and the range was between 4.4% to 28%. This estimation is higher than the general prevalence of PTSD in the adult population of 3-4%, yet lower than prevalence found among people traumatized by war or torture, a range of 2045%. Since only 50% of the studies examined here stratified PTSD prevalence among physicians by gender, we could not accurately conclude gender differences. Conclusions: Our findings prompt a need for further investigation into the development of support programs for healthcare providers, aimed at reducing the traumatic stress experienced by physicians at work.