Late Breaking Abstract - Depression and anxiety in patients with cystic fibrosis before and during Covid 19 pandemic

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> In the general population, COVID-19 pandemic caused many changes in life routine including an increased risk for mental illness symptoms.¹ We aimed to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in anxiety and depression symptoms in cystic fibrosis (CF) population. Methods We analysed the data of 42 patients with CF (23 males, mean age 28.8 ± 9.2 yrs), who completed Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7)&nbsp;and Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R) before and during COVID-19 outbreak. To assess the influence of age, patients were divided in 2 groups (&lt;21 yrs, n 10 and &gt;21 yrs, n 32). <b>Results:</b> No significant difference was found in depression, anxiety and quality of life (QoL) before and during COVID-19 outbreak in CF patients regardless of gender and age. Compared to males, female patients reported lower scores before and during COVID-19 pandemic in the three questionnaires (p&lt;0,05). CFQ-R scores significantly correlated with PHQ-9 (p&lt;0.001) and GAD-7 (p&lt;0.001) scores. None of the study patients acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection. Discussion In contrast with the data obtained in the general population, COVID-19 did not appear to influence mental health in CF patients not infected by SARS-CoV-2. As already known, ² anxiety and depression symptoms at baseline appeared greater in female patients but COVID-19 did not influence the results. CF patients are generally used to social distancing, segregation and standard hygiene precautions in order to protect themselves from respiratory infections and this might be reason why the pandemic did not result in major changes in their daily life and QoL. 1. Xiong Jet al,&nbsp;2020 2. Ciprandi R et al, 2021