Prevalence of Depression in General Practitioners during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lorestan province, Iran, in 2020-2021

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed negative effects on the mental well-being of society and in particular healthcare workers. General practitioners (GPs), as frontline health workers, are continually exposed to mood problems that might endanger their ability to provide patients with proper care.

To investigate the prevalence of depression in GPs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Khorramabad city Lorestan province, Iran, from 2020 to 2021. A total of 151 GPs working in primary health centers and hospitals were studied. Demographic information including age, sex, and marital status was collected. Beck Depression Inventory-II was used to evaluate the symptoms of depression. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 22.

In this study, 151 subjects were included, 75 of whom (49.7%) were male. The mean age of the studied population was 38.6 ± 11.4 years. Ninety-seven subjects (64.2%) had moderate depression, 41 (27.2%) had severe depression, and 13 (8.6%) had very serve depression. The frequency of severe depression was significantly higher in divorced and widowed individuals (p = 0.025), and those with less than 5 years of work experience (p=0.043), compared with other groups.

In this study, an extreme rate of depression was observed among GPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrated policies should be adopted to empower healthcare workers to maintain their mental well-being during health crises.