Psychological stress caused by epidemics among health care workers and implications for coping with the corona crisis: a literature review

Objectives: COVID-19 has significantly changed the working and living conditions within a short period.Despite the milder course of the disease in comparison to other countries, employees in the German health care system are particularly affected by the massive impact of the disease on their professional and private lives. From a scientific point of view, summarized empirical evidence made during other epidemics and at the beginning of the COVID-19-pandemic is largely missing. Methods: Narrative review article, literature search on PubMed database. Results: A total of 56 studies were included, 35 of them on the SARS epidemic and seven on COVID-19; included studies reported overall increased stress levels, anxiety and PTSD symptoms due to health care work during various epidemics.Direct contact with patients, quarantine experiences and perceived health risks were further stress factors in epidemics.Participation in intervention studies enabled better management of epidemic-related situations. Conclusions: Healthcare workers are exposed to high workloads because of epidemics, which can have a variety of adverse effects.Recommendations are made for dealing with periods of high exposure during the COVID-19-pandemic.