AUTHOR=Zhao Fushuai , Lung Hsuan , Chen Po-Fei , Chang Mei-Chung , Lung For-Wey 

TITLE=Religion and the Mediating Role of Alexithymia in the Mental Distress of Healthcare Workers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in a Psychiatric Hospital in China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.837916

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.837916

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedented challenges to the health care system, religion and alexithymic trait impacts the psychological resilience of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the role religion and alexithymia plays in mental distress and level of happiness of psychiatric hospital healthcare workers in China amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, whether symptom dimensions (anxiety, depression, hostility, inferiority and insomnia) are associated with the level of happiness, and at six-months follow-up was also investigated. One-hundred and ninety healthcare workers were recruited from a psychiatric hospital in Jilin, China, and 122 were followed-up after 6 months. All participants filled out the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, five-item Brief-Symptom Rating Scale, and the Chinese Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. The mental distress of healthcare workers decreased from 2.6% to 1.5% in 6-months. Religious belief was not associated with the mental distress or happiness of healthcare workers. Instead, those whose anxiety decreased over six-months, their social adaptation status increased. Those whose inferiority level decreased overtime, their perceived level of psychological well-being and overall happiness increased. In over half a century of living in different societies, religion stabilize the mental health of those in Taiwan amidst the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, but not in China. However, both regions found healthcare workers with alexithymic trait experienced higher level of mental distress, implying that the collectivist culture of Confucian philosophy continues to influence the emotional expression and alexithymic trait of healthcare workers in China and Taiwan. To ensure a healthy and robust clinical workforce in treatment and control of the pandemic, the cultural impact on the psychological resilience of medical workers needs to be addressed.