Mental health among healthcare workers during COVID-19: a study to oversee the impact of the risk perception and relationship with inflammation from blood-based extracellular vesicles

Introduction Preventive measures have been implemented in hospitals during COVID-19, but how these guidelines affected mental health among healthcare workers (HCWs) remains to be determined. On another note, reliable psychological and blood-based markers are needed to promptly identify HCWs at-risk to develop distress. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) originating from brain cross the blood–brain barrier and are detectable in blood, giving them a highly valuable potential for biomarker discovery. In HCWs with or without psychological distress, we investigated how perceived stress during COVID-19 impacted mental health. We then longitudinally evaluated the inflammatory cargo from neuron-, astrocyte-, and microglial-derived EVs that may be associated with psychological distress. Methods Our prospective study that included an initial visit (02/2021–08/2021), and two follow-up visits 3 and 6 months later (last visit; 03/2022). HCWs ( n = 15) completed questionnaires for perception of risk, COVID-19-specific posttraumatic symptomatology, psychological distress and burnout, as well as sleep quality. Blood was collected at each visit to characterizing inflammation from brain-derived EVs. Multiple regressions were conducted for all psychological/biological parameters based on the HCWs’ final score for psychological distress. Results Onset of psychological distress was associated early hyperarousal. Moreover, severe distress was associated with increased astrocyte-specific levels of anti-inflammatory interleukin-10 and pro-inflammatory interferon-ɣ. Discussion Our findings—that need to be replicated in larger studies—suggest that early hyperarousal may be predictive of later onset of psychological distress in HCWs. They also unravel a novel area of biomarker discovery study in psychiatry as inflammation from brain-derived EVs could help targeting “at-risk” individuals.