SELF-REPORTED MEASURE OF SUBJECTIVE DISTRESS IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIA IN PATIENTS REFERRED TO OUR SKIN CANCER UNIT DURING THE FIRST WAVE

During the Italian first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, social restrictions and bad news daily spread by mass media inevitably had a great influence on the mental state of the population. To assess how much the COVID-19 outbreak impacted the psychologic state of patients referring to our Skin Cancer Unit from March 9th to May 31st, 2020, we submitted to them a self-report questionnaire, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). To evaluate the trend of the IES-score over time, we set a temporal cut-off on March 27th (the day with the highest number of deaths for COVID-19 in Italy during the first wave). 355 patients completed the questionnaire reporting an average IES-R score of 25.5 (±16.4); 32.4% of participants reached a total IES-R score >32. Patients who came to visit after March 27th reported a higher psychologic impact since the IES-R score significantly increased from 23.6 (±15.6) to 28.3 (±17.2). A group reported higher scores (57.4% of participants reaching an IES-R score >32 were femen, versus 33.9% of men). We gathered that, at an early stage of events of this magnitude, it could be useful to submit the IES-R questionnaire in high-risk and oncological patients: we could be able to identify individuals at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorders, who may be tempted to postpone necessary medical consultations. This could be also the basis for increasing targeted psychologic support in selected patients.