ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic exacerbated psychological distress. Our aim was to investigate the impact of breast cancer on patients' lives during the Italian lockdown. METHODS: Sixty-five female breast cancer patients were studied, assessing the level of psychological distress with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the impact of the cancer diagnosis (Impact of Event Scale-Revised-IES-R). In addition, we compared these data with a matched group of breast cancer patients enrolled in 2019. RESULTS: Patients enrolled in 2020 had statistically higher levels of anxious symptomatology and higher levels of traumatic symptomatology due to the cancer diagnosis. A mediation analysis was performed to determine how the experience of distress due to COVID-19 negatively impacted the level of anxiety and amplified the impact of the diagnosis with a significant increase in traumatic symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the vulnerability of these patients and the serious and novel situation that the healthcare system is currently facing, we would like to point out the importance of structured and organised psychological support for these patients.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms , COVID-19 , Psychological Distress , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic , Anxiety/psychology , Breast Neoplasms/complications , Breast Neoplasms/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Communicable Disease Control , Depression/psychology , Female , Humans , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Stress, Psychological/epidemiology , Stress, Psychological/psychologyABSTRACT
We aimed to assess the levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and distress in a sample of breast cancer patients in the different phases of the illness. We performed a cross-sectional study. We divided 301 female breast cancer patients into three groups, based on the phase of illness they were in being in post-surgery (N = 100), receiving adjuvant therapies (N = 86), and receiving follow-up care (N = 115). We included the follow-up within the phases of illness. We further divided each group into first diagnosed or with recurrence and we administered Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Distress Thermometer. First-diagnosed patients with clinically relevant anxiety increased from being post-surgery (35.8%), to receiving adjuvant therapies (53.7%), and to being in follow-up (61.5%). In patients with recurrence, distress was stable among the illness phases, but many patients had clinically relevant anxiety (55.65%) and depression (43.48%). First-diagnosed patients' emotional distress could be more linked to follow-up-related difficulties. During recurrence, high distress could be due to the failure of previous treatments. Distress screening can better orient psycho-social interventions and healthcare resources.
