Abstract
ObjectiveWe aimed at investigating the impact of COVID-19-related distress on patients with chronic pain, highlighting the effects of changes in individual habits and public health care reconfiguration on physical and psychological health.MethodsDuring the pandemic, 80 participants (25 patients with small fibre neuropathy (SFN), 42 patients with chronic migraine (CM) and 13 patients’ healthy family members (HFM)) were asked to evaluate their COVID-19 complains, changes in habits and clinical management, behaviour, mood, loneliness, quality of life (QoL), physical and mental health and coping strategies. Data were analysed by Spearman rho correlations and Mann-Whitney U tests.ResultsPatients had lower QoL, lower physical health and higher catastrophizing attitude towards pain than HFM. During the pandemic, SFN patients referred greater decline in clinical symptoms, worries about contagion and discomfort for disease management changes than CM patients. In the SFN group, the higher levels of disability were associated with suffering from changes in neurologist-patient relationship. CM patients complained of agitation/anxiety that was related to feelings of loneliness, depressive mood and catastrophism.DiscussionDespite similar complains of change in habits and worries about COVID-19 pandemic, SFN and CM patients had distinct reactions. In SFN patients, pandemic distress impacted on physical health with worsening of clinical conditions, especially suffering from changes in their care. In CM patients, pandemic distress affected behaviour, mainly with psychological frailty. This suggests the need to customize public health care for patients with distinct chronic pain conditions.
Highlights
The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) turned to become a sudden public health crisis that strongly influenced psychological and physical health of the general population [1, 2]
Twenty-five small fibre neuropathy (SFN) patients, 42 chronic migraine (CM) patients and 13 Healthy family members (HFM) volunteers participated in the study completed the COVID-19 distress questionnaire (Table 2)
Twenty-three SFN patients filled out questionnaires by e-mails and two SFN patients were contacted by phone to fulfil questionnaires
Summary
The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) turned to become a sudden public health crisis that strongly influenced psychological and physical health of the general population [1, 2]. In Italy, the lockdown imposed between March 8th and May 3rd 2020 included restrictions of general population movement except for health care personnel and workers employed in social relevant activities and for urgent health/work needs. This stopped all elective and routine casework while healthcare providers have had to change their practice significantly. Patients with chronic diseases suffered from major burden of this sudden social reorganization due to the need of frequent access to health facilities, including in-person visits, follow ups and treatments [5, 6]. Individuals living in Northern Italy felt the health emergency as more urgent than
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