Depressive Symptoms among Nurses in Al Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt

Background: Depression among psychiatric nurses is associated with adverse effects on theirphysical and mental health, as well as on their productivity and the quality of care provided for theirpatients.Objective(s): To estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and to identify some of theirdeterminants among nurses in a mental hospital in Alexandria, Egypt.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 215 randomly selected psychiatric nurses inAl-Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital in Alexandria. The data was collected using a predesignedstructured self-administered questionnaire along with the Arabic Version of the Beck DepressionInventory-II (BDI-II).Results: The age of the sampled nurses ranged from 22 to 59 years, and most of them were females(88.8%). More than one-third (37.2%) of the nurses had depressive symptoms of variable severity,ranging from mild (28.4%) to severe (1.8%) symptoms. "Moderate/ Severe" depressive symptomswere estimated to be 8.8% among psychiatric nurses. Females with "Moderate/ Severe" depressivesymptoms were more than the double of the males (9.4% Vs 4.2% respectively). Logistic regressionanalysis revealed two significant predictors of moderate/ severe depressive symptoms amongpsychiatric nurses: few social networks (OR=9.257, 95% CI=1.991-43.051), and job title "nurse"(OR=0.107, 95% CI=0.012-0.924).Conclusion: Depressive symptoms of varying severity represent a mental health challenge amongpsychiatric nurses. Indicated interventions addressing social support networks, psychological well-being, and occupational factors would promote the mental health resilience of psychiatric nurses anddecrease the negative impact of depressive symptoms among them.