Study of anxiety-depressive disorders among doctors at "Salah Azaïez" Cancer Institute in Tunis

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.sidebar##

Published Nov 18, 2023
Download
pdf
Vol. 101 No. 10 (2023): Tunis med oct 2023

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.main##

Imene Yeddes
Department of Nuclear Medicine , Salah Azaiez Institute, Faculty of Medicine ofTunis, University of TunisEl Manar , Tunis, Tunisia
Khadija Meddeb
Department of Medical Oncology , Salah Azaiez Institute, Faculty of Medicine ofTunis,University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Amina Mokrani
Department of Medical Oncology , Salah Azaiez Institute, Faculty of Medicine ofTunis,University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Imene Boukhris
Department of Internal Medicine, Charles Nicolle hospital/ Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Houyem Khiari
Department of Epidemiology, Salah Azaiez Institute, Faculty of Medicine ofTunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia

Abstract

Introduction: Oncologists are often confronted with patients at the end of their lives who are suffering. This can lead to anxiety and depressive disorders (ADD), affecting the quality of the doctors’s quality of life


Aim: To compare the level of ADD among doctors practicing at Salah Azaiez Institute (SAI) in Tunis with doctors who do not treat cancer patients, while identifying any factors associated with these disorders.


Methods: We conducted a comparative and analytical study of 141 physicians:53 oncologists practicing at the Salah Institut Azaiez and 91 at other hospital structures (Charles Nicolle’s Hospital and Rabta’s Hospital), matched by age and gender for a period of 2 months, started from 02 May to 30 June 2022.


Results: Our research showed that SAI’s doctors were significantly more exposed to anxiety disorders (p= 0.016) compared with other doctors (47.2% vs. 37.5%), without being more exposed to depressive disorders. SAI’s doctors reported more associated stress factors, notably exposure to body image-distorting tumors (p<0.001), exposure to the suffering of loved ones (p=0.006), lack of human resources (p=0.017), perceived unsuitability of premises (p=0.001) and overwork (p=0.013). These doctors consumed more alcohol (p=0.04). In addition, 58.5% of SAI’s doctors felt that their profession significantly affected their quality of life, compared to 45% of doctors in other hospitals (p=0.04)


Conclusions: All the doctors questioned, "all specialties combined", showed varying rates of anxiety and depressive disorders. However, anxiety disorders were significantly higher among SAI’s doctors, for whom stress factors had a greater impact.

Keywords:

physician, oncologist, cancer, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.details##

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

  1. Girgis A, Lambert SD, Mc Elduff P, et al. Some things change, somethings stay the same: a longitudinal analysis of cancer caregivers’unmet supportive care needs.Psychooncology. 2013;22:1557-1564.
  2. Grov EK, Dahl AA, Moum T, Fossa SD. Anxiety, depression, and quality of life in caregivers of patients with cancer in late palliative phase.Ann Oncol. 2005;16:1185-119.
  3. Machavoine J-L.L’épuisement professionnel des médecins et des soignants en cancérologie.Approche psychodynamique et institutionnelle. Psycho-Oncol.2015;9:9-13.
  4. Zigmond A.S., Snaith R.P. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatr. Scand., 1983, 67, 361-370. Traduction française : J.F. Lépine.
  5. Lesage F-X, Berjot S, Amoura C, Deschamps F, Grebot E. Mesure du stress en milieu de travail par autoquestionnaires validés en français: revue de la littérature. Archives des Maladies Professionnelles et de l'Environnement. 2012;73(4):596-606.
  6. Lloyd S, Streiner D, Shannon S. Burnout, depression, life and job satisfaction among Canadian emergency physicians. J Emerg Med. 1994;12:559–65.
  7. Schwenk TL, Gorenflo DW, Leja LM. A survey on the impact of being depressed on the professional status and mental health care of physicians. J Clin Psychiatry. 2008;69:617–20.
  8. Vaglum P, Falkum E. Self-criticism, dependency and depressive symptoms in a nationwide sample of Norwegian physicians. J Affect Disord. 1999;52:153–9.
  9. Wada K, Yoshikawa T, Goto T et al. Association of depression and suicidal ideation with unreasonable patient demands and complaints among Japanese physicians: a national crosssectional survey. Int J Behav Med. 2011;18:384–90.
  10. Gong Y, Han T, Chen W et al. Prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms and related risk factors among physicians in China: a cross-sectional study. Harper DM, editor. PLoS One. 2014;9:e103242.
  11. Medisauskaite A, Kamau C. Prevalence of oncologists in distress: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychooncology. 2017;26 (11) :1732-1740.
  12. Paiva1 CE, Martins BP, Paiva1 BS. Doctor, are you healthy? A cross-sectional investigation of oncologist burnout,depression, and anxiety and an investigation of their associated factors. BMC Cancer.2018;18:1044.
  13. Mordant P, Deneuve S, Rivera C, et al. Quality of life of surgical oncology residents and fellows across Europe. J Surg Educ. 2014;71(2):222-8.
  14. Ciammella P, De Bari B, Fiorentino A, et al. The "BUONGIORNO" Project: Burnout syndrome among young Italian radiation oncologists. Cancer Invest. 2013;31(8):522
  15. Pedersen AF, Sørensen JK, Bruun NH, et al. Risky alcohol use in Danish physicians: associated with alexithymia and burnout? Drug Alcohol Dependence. 2016;160,119-26.
  16. Unrath M, Zeeb H, Letzel S, et al. Identification of possible risk factors for alcohol use disorders among general practitioners in Rhineland-Palatinat, Germany. Swiss Med Wkly. 2012;142:1-9
  17. Whippen DA, Canelllos GP. Burnout syndrome in the practice of oncology: results of a random survey of 1.000 oncologists. J Clin Oncol.1991 Oct;9(10):1916-20.
  18. Shanafelt T,Dyrbye L. Oncologist burnout: causes, consequences, and responses. J Clin Oncol.2012 Apr 10;30(11):1235-41.