Evaluation of Anxiety and Perceived Stress Levels in Patients with Acromegaly After the First Lockdown of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine and compare the anxiety level and stress perception of acromegaly patients with controlled and active disease in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Methods: A total of 49 (23 females/26 males) patients applied to the outpatient clinic during the month after the first lockdown of the pandemic period were recruited in this cross-sectional study. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-Anxiety for state scale, T-Anxiety for trait scale) and Perceived Stress Scale-14 were used to evaluate the event-related current state anxiety, the general tendency to anxiety, and perceived stressful situations. Patients were divided into 2 groups as active (n = 14) and well controlled (n = 35) patient groups and compared. Results: The active acromegaly group had significantly higher scores than well-controlled patients on all the S-Anxiety (P = .011), T-Anxiety (P = .002), and Perceived Stress Scale-14 (P = .007) scores after controlling for age, gender, body mass index, education years, marital and occupation status, disease duration, and disease-specific medical treatment status covariates. S-Anxiety (P = .021), T-Anxiety (P = .004), and Perceived Stress Scale-14 (P = .009) scores were found significantly higher in single patients than in married ones. Conclusion: This study showed significantly increased anxiety and perceived stress levels after the first lockdown of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, especially in the active and single acromegaly patients compared to the well-controlled and married ones. Psychiatric symptoms should be carefully evaluated in the follow-up of acromegaly patients. The necessary psychological support should be provided to patients by focusing on these symptoms to improve patient management, particularly in a health-related stressful situation such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.