Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Physicians Working in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Five Tertiary Care Hospitals in Riyadh – A Survey

Abstract

The Chinese city of Wuhan reported a novel pneumonia, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, by the end of December 2019. The disease, subsequently, came to be known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and gradually spread around the world [1]. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the spread of COVID-19 was such that it could be characterized as a pandemic. COVID-19 has a potential impact on the mental health of the general population and at-risk subgroups. One such subgroup is that of healthcare workers. Holmes et al. [2] identified frontline healthcare workers as one of the eight vulnerable groups for mental health research. Like many other physicians, obstetricians and gynecologists are on the front lines to treat patients with COVID-19. They are not only working tirelessly to care for such patients, but they also face a variety of psychological effects.