Therapeutic doctors under the influence of chronic stress and distress (personal anxiety and situational anxiety, quality of life)

Introduction. Medical workers, including doctors of therapeutic specialties, are one of the most vulnerable categories among the professions helping to form disorders of the psycho-emotional sphere, increase the level of occupational stress, increased anxiety and lower quality of life. The purpose of the study: to establish the characteristics of the state of the psychoemotional sphere, the development of personal anxiety and situational anxiety, to assess the quality of life among doctors of therapeutic specialties [oncologists of therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists), pulmonologists, occupational pathologists who, along with therapeutic work, deal with issues of examination of the connection of the disease with the profession and examination of professional suitability]. Materials and methods. The study was performed at the Department of Occupational Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology named after V. V. Kosarev of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Medical Education of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Regional Center of Occupational Pathology of the Samara City Hospital No. 5. The following groups of doctors were examined. Group 1 — oncologists of a therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists) of polyclinic departments of the Samara Region State Medical University (n = 30); Group 2 — pulmonologists from the clinics of the Samara State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Samara Regional Clinical Hospital named after V. D. Seredavina», Samara City Hospital No. 5, polyclinic departments of Samara Region State Medical University (n = 30), occupational pathologists of the Department of Occupational Pathology of the Regional Center of Occupational Pathology of Samara City Hospital No. 5, polyclinic departments of Samara Region State Medical University (n = 42), the 4th control group included employees engineering, technical and economic specialties that are not related to work in medical organizations (n = 190). The integrative anxiety test (ITT) was used in the study to study the formation of psychoemotional disorders in doctors of therapeutic specialties. The quality of life was determined using the SF-36 questionnaire. The data obtained was processed using the Statistica statistical package from StatSoft (USA). Results. It has been established that the work of doctors of therapeutic specialties with the impact of occupational stress on this category of medical workers leads to an increase in anxiety levels and a decrease in the quality of life.Limitations of the study. The study has regional (Samara region) and professional (in terms of detailed working conditions in the comparison groups studied) limitations. Conclusions. The work of doctors of therapeutic specialties is associated with an increase in the level of occupational stress, an increase in anxiety, and a decrease in the quality of life. At the same time, psychological changes are most pronounced among oncologists of a therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists), as well as occupational pathologists. It is necessary to continue research on the emotional state of medical personnel in order to carry out timely preventive treatment to preserve the health of medical workers.