Common psychiatric symptoms among public school teachers in Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil. An observational cross-sectional study

Abstract

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Teachers are at great risk of physical and mental stress due to material or psychological difficulties associated with their work. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of common psychiatric symptoms measured on the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) scale that would suggest a diagnosis of psychiatric disorders among public school teachers in Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil, in 2012. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational cross-sectional study in Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil. METHOD:We assessed 110 municipal teachers in the city of Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil. They were selected randomly from a list of employees of the Municipal Education Department of Palmas. All of them answered the SRQ-20 questionnaire after giving their consent. RESULTS: Between the years 2008 and 2011, 24 cases of absence from work due to mental disorders were found. We excluded one case and 109 teachers answered the SRQ-20questionnaire. Out of the 109 teachers assessed, 54 had ≥ 7 points on the SRQ-20 scale. This finding suggests that 49.5% of the teachers had symptoms that were sufficient to consider a diagnosis of mental disorder, with the need for treatment. CONCLUSION: Our study found that the prevalence of mental disorders among teachers is as high as seen in the literature. Our results suggest that recognition of mental disorders is low and that the current statistics fail to reach the occupational health sector. RESUMO

Níveis de ansiedade e depressão entre professores do Ensino Infantil e Fundamental

“…Although 80% of the widows were ill, the difference may have by chance been due to the reduced number of teachers in this condition. To conclude, the present study pointed to the following aspects: a) using the BAI and BDI scales as parameters (Cunha, 2011), about 50% of the teachers questioned presented harmful levels of anxiety and/or depression to the educational act, confirming the results obtained by Baldaçara et al (2015) and Oliveira and Leite (2012). Regarding however, the association of these levels to a) the degree of satisfaction with work aspects developed in the teaching profession, the differences were not statistically significant; b) the age of the participants, the difference was only statistically significant for the 16 subjects who were in the age group between 41 and 45 years; c) the devotees of the catholic religion (almost all the subjects), there were no statistically significant differences either, as for protestant Christians and those "without religion" the differences may have occurred by chance, considering the small number of participants; d) teachers who taught classes in more than one room, likewise, we did not verify an association; e) the time of the professional exercise in the teaching profession, a similar result was verified, that is, we did not find any statistically significant differences; f) marital status, again there were no significant differences, except for the widows (although the greatest degree of illness among them may have been by chance); g) schooling where the majority of teachers who attended Normal Superior School showed high levels of anxiety and depression, allowing the association between illness and this variable; and h) the history of psychological disorders in the family and psychological illness, where it was also not possible to establish an association.…”

“…The highest proportion of psychological illness was found by Baldaçara, Silva, Castro and Santos (2015), who analyzed the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in teachers from the public school system in Palmas, the state of Tocantins -Brazil. Based on the 109 teachers from Palmas indicated which symptoms they were suffering from.…”

Expert panel’s modification and concurrent validity of the Teacher Stress Inventory among selected secondary school teachers in Nigeria

“…The impact of the teaching profession on the psychological health of teachers is of utmost public health importance all over the world (Abel and Sewell 1999;Baldacara et al 2015;Chan 2000;Johnson et al 2005), and the construct of "teachers' stress" which has been conceptualized as having both emotional and physical substrates resulting from some aspect of their work (Freudenberger 1974) is well recognized. Despite this, teachers' stress is largely determined by varying contextual perception and sociocultural factors (Bhagat et al 2007).…”

Prevalência de transtorno mental comum em professores da educação infantil

“…As respostas mais frequentes foram correspondentes a sentir-se nervoso, tenso ou preocupado, seguida o fato de sentir-se triste e ter dificuldades em realizar com satisfação as tarefas diárias conforme a Tabela 3. Baldaçara et al (2015) ao avaliarem 109 professores de uma escola pública em Palmas (TO/BR), destes 54, ou seja, 49,5% dos professores tinham sintomas suficientes para identificar um diagnóstico de transtorno mental.Em estudo com 679 professores de escolas primárias de Porto Alegre (RS/BR), Carlotto e Câmara (2015) encontraram uma prevalência de 29,7% de transtornos mentais comuns. Entre os sintomas mais presentes estavam em sentir dores de cabeça frequentes e dormir mal.…”