“Many of my physician patients are meeting the criteria for PTSD—and that number has gone up.”
is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting people’s lives. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with psychiatrist Nicole Christian Brathwaite,
who treats health care workers in Boston. It has been transcribed, condensed, and edited for clarity by Julia Craven. I didn’t have as many physician patients prior to COVID. That number has increased. I’ve been practicing psychiatry since 2008. I’m board certified to treat both children and adults so I see the lifespan.
I practice tele-psychiatry, so I see patients in various states throughout the country. There certainly is a difference between the physicians I work with in Massachusetts and the physicians I work with in Illinois or Idaho. The numbers of hospitalizations are much higher in those Midwestern states, and those physicians are now literally experiencing trauma-like symptoms. They’re beginning to suffer from sleep deprivation, they’re noticing increased irritability.
Many physicians and healthcare workers tend to be type A personalities. We work very hard. We want to do things well, and we set a standard for ourselves. We go into medicine because we believe in it. We believe in the ability to treat people and hear people.
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